Death Demystified🔗

kramadwaadashakam samyag dwaadashaaksharabheditam| sthoolasukshmaparasthityaa muktvaa muktvaantatah shivah ||

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

Shiva Sutras is the applied science, the technology to experience the ultimate truth in our life. Vedanta philosophy is the theory, the scientific theory. Shiva Sutras are the applied science, the technology to experience what Vedanta gives as a theory. In Vedanta what you learn is the intellectual truth, in Shiva Sutras you are made to experience that. That truth becomes part of your being.

Just reading about the ultimate truth may not be a direct help. It may be an inspiration but it won't be useful in any way unless it becomes your experience. Unless they become your experience, words alone cannot do anything. They won't be able to transform your life.

Small story:

A father goes to meet his would-be son-in-law. After meeting him, he asks, 'My dear, what is your plan about the future? What do you want to do to make your living?' The boy asks, 'Living? I will study Vedanta. God will take care of me.'

After a few minutes, again, the girl's father asks, 'My dear, how are you planning to provide, to take care of my daughter?' The boy says, 'Oh, your daughter! Well, I shall study Vedanta. I shall study Gita. God will provide.'

After few minutes, again the father asks, 'My dear son-in-law! What's your plan about taking care of your kids, your children?' The boy replies, 'Oh, kids! I will study Vedanta. God will take care. God will provide.'

The father comes back home. His wife asks, 'What happened to your meeting? How do you feel about the boy? What do you think about him?'

The father says, 'I know two things. One, he has no plans for his life. He has no plans about the future. Another thing, he thinks I am God!'

'He thinks I am God' means the boy expects that the father-in-law will provide!

Understand, Vedanta is not going to do anything directly in your life. It may be an inspiration. But, unless you are transformed, unless it becomes an experience in you, you won't be helped. The Shiva Sutras are the technology to directly transform your being. They work directly on your being. They straightaway transform your being.

Here, Shiva is not giving you any theories. He is straightaway giving you the technology to explode, to expand, and to experience your inner space, what I call 'Shiva Consciousness'. Many different words, Atman, God, Self, Nirvana, whatever word I may use, it is the same eternal bliss.

Now, let us enter into Shiva's words, the Shiva Sutras to understand the teachings of Shiva. Today's topic is 'Death Demystified'. So, let us enter into the Shiva Sutras so that we can demystify the death experience and death itself.

kramadwaadashakam samyag dwaadashaaksharabheditam| sthoolasukshmaparasthityaa muktvaa muktvaantatah shivah ||

Beautiful verse! Let me give you the translation; then, we will enter into the sutra itself. Of course, I am giving you the translation just to give you the understanding. You will really be able to understand the sutra only when you see the explanation.

To tell you honestly, none of these sutras can be translated. Each has got so many meanings. It is impossible to translate. If you have deep knowledge of Shakespeare or if you are really a poet and have experienced Gitanjali in original Bengali, you will understand that translation of these poets is simply impossible. If you enjoy Shakespeare, you will understand translation is simply impossible.

Even a single word if you miss, you won't be able to experience the juice or the real essence.

So, now, I will try to give you the translation just for your information. But, we will understand the sutra itself when we see the explanation. Because only that can give the real meaning what Shiva wants to convey.

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

This is one possible translation. Let us explore step by step what Shiva means by this sutra and how it can transform our life.

One thing I want to tell you, this single sutra can give you the tremendous power to fulfill all your dreams and to give you the realization that dreams are not ordinary things as you think.

Dreams are made of the same stuff of which this world is made. If you think dreams are ordinary, this world is also ordinary. If you think this world is some kind of reality for you, dreams are also reality.

This sutra will give you the experience, it will give you the power, it will give you the energy to make your dreams into reality and it will give you the intelligence to understand that whatever you think as reality is nothing but a dream.

It will work deep in you. It will give the energy to make your dreams into reality and it will give you the intelligence to understand the reality itself is nothing but one more dream.

Here, we are talking about the breath energy. In Sanskrit, we call it prana. Breath does not mean the air that goes in and comes out. Air is just a vehicle in which the energy of prana comes in and goes out.

Prana is the life force, the energy itself. Understand this one example: if a truck comes inside this temple and leaves something and goes out, the truck is like the air, the truck is like the breath. The product that comes in the truck, the product that is delivered from the truck is prana.

Constantly, the air is going in and after leaving the prana inside the air is coming out. The air is going in, leaving the prana inside and the air is coming out. Constantly, we are taking prana through air. From the cosmos, we are taking prana through air.

Here, when Shiva talks about breath, he is talking about prana. He is not speaking about breath. He is not concerned about breath.

In Bharat, if you have attended Kumbh Mela festivals that occur as massive gatherings once in 12 years on sacred riverbanks, you might have seen this. I have seen the yogis who will put their heads totally in the earth and be buried for three days. Three days, they will keep their head under the earth; the head will be buried. Logically, you can't understand. Logically, you will be thinking, 'How are they alive? How are they breathing? How is the prana being supplied to the body?' In Bharat, yogis know how to take the prana directly from the cosmos without the help of air.

As long as you take prana through air, you need to breathe. You need to inhale and exhale. But, when you can take the prana directly without the help of air, you don't need to inhale or exhale through the nose. Your body can directly take the prana through the cosmos.

One more thing: as long as the incoming breath is bringing more prana and going out empty, as long as it comes in as prana shakti (energy) and goes out as empty vehicle, your life will be strengthened.

If the reverse starts happening, if it comes with less prana and goes out with more prana shakti, the person can understand his death is nearing or he is going towards the death.

That is the reason all the great masters who know or who can sense the prana shakti can tell about their death. They were able to predict their death. Before six months of their passing away, they were able to see very clearly the prana moving out of their body. Just the empty air will enter but when it goes out, it will go with the prana.

There is a powerful concept in Ayurveda (traditional Hindu system of medicine) called as the peak age. Till a particular age, the person will be receiving more prana through the incoming breath and less prana will be going out through the outgoing breath. The moment the outgoing breath starts carrying more prana than the incoming breath, they know now the person is moving towards death.

If more prana is brought through the incoming breath, if the incoming breath is carrying more prana than the outgoing breath, you are going towards the life, you are expanding, you are strengthening your body, and you are strengthening your energy.

If the outgoing breath is carrying more prana than the incoming breath, be very clear, you are going towards death, and you are working towards the death.

The great masters, Buddha, Shankara, Guru Nanak, Mahavira, all of them had predicted their death. All of them had very clearly predicted the time of their leaving the body. It is just because they were able to sense their prana. They could very clearly experience the amount of prana. They were able to very clearly see what was happening with their breath.

This technique is a very beautiful technique. Now, Shiva is giving you the technique to work on the prana and to increase the amount of the prana. Not only is He telling the basic truths about the prana, He is giving you the technique also to work on the prana, to increase the incoming prana. And, above all, He is giving you the ultimate freedom from the death itself through this technique.

Let us enter into the technique.

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

Now, He is introducing the next part: 'let the breath move through the energy centers'. The prana moves, functions and stays in the center of the forehead, which is the ajna chakra (third eye energy center) when you are in the waking state. When you are in dream state, it moves around the neck around the vishuddhi chakra (throat energy center). When you are in deep sleep, it moves around the anahata chakra (heart energy center).

That is why you can never fall asleep if your head is straight. Unless you relax the head, unless you allow the prana movement, unless you relax, the prana cannot move from forehead to anahata. This is the reason why unless you relax your head you can't go to sleep.

Even if you are lying on the bed if try to keep the head straight, you will never be able to sleep. If you think constantly, your head will be straight and your shoulder will be under stress. The stress in shoulder and the head being straight, both are very closely associated. You can see in your life. Early morning, go to your office, you don't have to do any work, just sit in your chair and think about the problems, get stressed, you will have shoulder pain!

Without starting any work, you don't have to do anything, just remember your manager and meditate on him. You will have shoulder pain! Actually all the pain and the stress you experience first is from the shoulder. When your shoulder is under stress, your head cannot bend and your head can never relax.

That is why people who think constantly can neither relax their head nor will they be able to fall asleep.

Even when you are lying in the bed, try to keep your head straight. You can't fall asleep. You won't fall asleep. Even when you are sitting, just put your head down. Simply, you will start sleeping and snoring.

Actually, going to some spiritual discourses is the best way to get sleep! Spiritual lectures, spiritual books and if nothing else works, start chanting some mantra! These are the ultimate techniques to fall asleep. Because in these spiritual lectures you don't have to think much. You think, 'He is talking and I can just sit and relax!' We don't need to do anything.

Whenever you relax, whenever your neck is relaxed, your prana will start flowing towards the anahata, towards the heart center; you will fall asleep.

Usually, when you are in the waking state, your prana will stay in ajna. You should know these few basic pieces of information to enter into the sutra or the technique. That is the reason I am trying to give you all this esoteric information. These are all the knowledge of the experiences of the ancient sages. They have done deep research in human consciousness and how to use human consciousness to develop the life.

Actually, the whole West has done so much in the field of mind! It has done all possible things to enrich human life using the mind, using the outer world. The East has done all possible researches to enrich the human life using consciousness. The West has worked in the line of the mind, the outer world. The East has worked in the line of consciousness, inner world. Both of them have tried their best to enrich human life, to make the life more comfortable, more blissful, and happier.

These are all the few techniques created by the ancient rishis to make your life more blissful, more ecstatic, using your consciousness.

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

Now, He is giving the technique.

He says, be aware at the moment when your prana reaches to the heart when you fall asleep and have control over dreams and over death itself.

Let me give you a small diagram and explain how this technique is going to help you and how to practice this technique.

Each day we go through four states of consciousness, whether we are aware or not. Two of these have our awareness in different degrees and two happen in unawareness. In two our mind functions generating thoughts and in two others it stays silent. This is a direct learning from the diagram. Now let me explain this differently.

We all know of two things for sure, life and death. These two basic things we all know. Constantly, life is slipping, entering into death. Life slipping into death is what we call living. Please understand, actually we don't live. We are just waiting for death to happen. Ordinary human beings don't live.

Life is just slipping into death and life is disappearing into death. That is the reason however many years you may live, you won't feel satisfied, and you won't feel you have lived your life because you don't know what life is. Just, something is slipping. You are not aware. You are not even aware of what is happening in your being.

When you become conscious at some point in your life, when you become conscious of the life, when you start thinking, contemplating about your life, when you bring awareness into your life, you create a new center in your being.

Between this life and death, when you bring more awareness into the life, you create a new center, new space in your life, and that is what I call consciousness. Whenever you are conscious, you will start deciding about your life. Please be very clear, whenever you are aware of your life, you will naturally start deciding.

For example, the more you become aware, the more you start designing or choosing what type of car you should drive, what type of house you should live in, what type of life you want; every inch you start deciding. You start deciding about every inch. You become conscious about everything: how you should talk, how you should behave, how you should think, and every inch you start becoming aware.

The consciousness starts happening only when you become aware. You start controlling the life itself only when you become aware. So, awareness creates a new thing in your life; you start controlling the life. Only when you become aware, you start controlling the life.

And if you become completely aware, you will start controlling death also. The moment you start becoming aware, you start deciding, you start controlling your life.

You bring things under your control only when you become aware. The moment you bring awareness into your life, consciousness grows and you start deciding, you start controlling life.

Both life and death happen in the conscious level. In the unconscious level, two other things happen, dream and deep sleep. If you are consciously thinking, it is life. If your consciousness can't think, it is death. In the unconscious level, if you are aware, it is dream. If you are not aware of anything, it is deep sleep.

Please understand this one diagram. You really need to understand this technique and this very understanding can transform you. Practicing is one thing; this very understanding will inspire you to practice because these are all the basic truths about life.

One you know how to breathe, what is the best way to bring energy through your breathing, after that you don't have to do that consciously. Just because of the very understanding, you will start doing it.

Now, we are working on your consciousness. In the waking state, when you are aware, when you are in the conscious state or what psychology calls as conscious state, if you are aware, it is life. If you are not aware, it is death. In the unconscious state, if you are aware of something, it is dream and it is called as dream. If you are not aware of anything, it is called deep sleep.

If you bring more awareness into your life you start controlling your life. Same way, if you start bringing in more awareness in your dreams you will be able to control your dreams and deep sleep.

Understand, in the conscious level, if you are aware of any movement around you, it is called life. If you are not aware of any movement, it is called death. In the unconscious level, if you are aware of any movement, it is called dream. If you are able to see anything, if you are able to sense anything, if you are able to feel anything, if you are able to experience any movement, it is called dream. In the unconscious level itself, if you are not able to feel anything, if you are not able to understand any movement, then it is deep sleep.

These are the four states you live in everyday. Between life and death, if you become aware of living, if you are conscious about living, you start controlling the life. You start deciding. You think, 'I think this type of car won't help me', 'This type of house is not going to work for me', 'Enough with this wife!' You start deciding, 'I am done with this job.' You start deciding. The more you become conscious, you start chiseling your life. You start controlling and deciding about your life.

Same way, again here, if you bring little more consciousness to this space, if you become conscious of the dream state, if you bring the same consciousness to the dream state, you will be able to control the dream and the deep sleep.

Controlling life and death, controlling dream and deep sleep both require one important thing: awareness. Awareness is the main thing to control life and death and to control dream and deep sleep.

Here, Shiva is giving you the technique to bring awareness into your dreams. He says, bringing awareness into your dream not only can help you to control the dream and deep sleep but it can help you to control the death and life also.

You may think, 'How?' He is answering. Let us see the sutra and you will see the answer.

All of us know, if you bring the awareness in the life, you can control your life. If you become completely aware of the prana, prana flow, how the prana is coming and how the prana is going and how to retain more prana in the body, you can then control the death process as well. This all of us can understand.

But, Shiva says, bring awareness to the unconscious, to the dream state. Not only you will be able to control the dream, you will be able to control the deep sleep. He says, you will be able to control death and life.

He gives so many different techniques. He offers so many different techniques to give us the experience of ultimate truth and the energy. How Shiva is saying control over dream and deep sleep can bring control over life and death, let us see.

When you bring prana to the forehead, when you start experiencing prana in the forehead, you will understand that not only prana is supplied from air and it is made of the stuff out of which the reality and the dream both are made.

Whatever you call as reality, whatever you call as dream, both are made of stuff called prana. Prana is the energy and prana is the substance out of which this reality and that reality both are made.

One more thing, when Shankara says this whole world is maya, He means this only. He means the stuff in which this world is made, in the same stuff only, that world is also made.

When you understand this, you will have the tremendous power and you will create tremendous energy to control both. As on now, you are just a victim; you can't even control your dreams; understand.

You may think you are a big person. You may have big identities. You may have big concepts about you given by the world, given by the society that you are a great person, you are this, you are that, all your university degrees, all the certificates given by the society, all the name and fame, everything you may have but you can't even control your dreams. You are just a victim of your dreams.

Can any of you dream what you want? You can't! You can't control a single incident in your dream. As on now, either you go through the whole dream or you can get out. You can get out of the dream, you can come out of the dream, and you can just wake up. Only these two are possible. You can't control the dream itself.

First thing, you should understand is that when you can control your life, why can't you control your dreams? As on now, you are not able to control your dreams. When you can influence your life, why can't you influence your dreams?

Actually, you can control your life. You can sit here. If you want, you can get up and go out. You have freedom to do some movement. Here, you see clear individual consciousness. We call it in Sanskrit, pratyagatma chaitanya, inner consciousness. We have individual intelligence.

You can decide and you can do things. You can control your life. But why are you not able to control the dream? That is what Shiva calls as ignorance, not trusting yourself, not bringing enough awareness to the dream.

He says, when you bring enough awareness to the dreams, you will become more aware in life also. Actually, as of now, you have certain amount of awareness, consciousness in the life. That is why you are able to control the life. But you don't have awareness in the dream state.

If you can bring more awareness to the dream state, the awareness in the life state will increase. The awareness in your life, awareness in the living state will multiply. If the awareness in the living state multiplies, naturally you will be able to control the state of death as well.

He is going in a very beautiful way, technical way. Sorry; it is little boring but truth! It has to be understood. It is a very important thing in the life that everybody needs to understand. Otherwise, death will be just a frightening experience.

Small story:

One parrot was brought up in a pet store. It was taught all foul, slang language and bad behavior. One guy, somehow, without knowing, bought the parrot and brought it to the house.

He was trying his best to teach good words, good behavior to the parrot. He was not able to. And he tried to punish; he tried to do all sorts of things. But, nothing worked. The parrot was only getting ruder. It was not ready to listen.

Finally, this guy got fed up. He put the parrot in the freezer and closed it. After a few minutes, he felt pity, 'All right, now it is time. Let me open.' He opened the freezer and took the parrot out. The parrot started saying, 'Please forgive me. I am sorry. Now, I understand I have disturbed you with my language and behavior. I won't do so from now.'

This guy was shocked. He thought, 'Oh God! I did so many things. The parrot was not ready to understand. Now, just a few minutes in the freezer, how did it understand?' He asked the parrot, 'What happened to you? How did you change your behavior? How did you realize your mistake?'

The parrot replied, 'I want to know only one thing: what did the chicken in the freezer do? I am afraid you may do the same thing to me!'

Only death can teach. If we don't learn now, death will teach. Let us learn now; let us not wait for death to teach.

There is one more beautiful one-liner: 'Go to the church by yourself; don't wait to be carried by four men.'

Understand the truth about death yourself from the right source. Don't wait till the death comes!

As on now, you have some amount of consciousness and awareness in the life. You are not completely aware or conscious. You can move, you can control only the things related to the body. You can't control the things related to prana.

You have many layers in the life also: annamaya, pranamaya, manonmaya: the body level, the prana level and mental level. There are many levels. As on now, you have enough awareness and consciousness to work on your body. If you want, you can stand. If you want, you can walk. If you want, you can decide anything related to the outer world.

But, you can't work on the level of the prana. You can't change the prana shakti coming in or going out. With this level of consciousness, you can't do even physical level changes in the dream.

In life, there are the physical, prana and the mental levels. Same way, in the dream, there are physical, prana and the mental levels. In life, you can do changes in the physical level, but not in the other two levels. Same way, in the dream, you can't even do changes in the physical level.

If you bring more and more awareness into the dream, if you can bring more and more consciousness into the dream, suddenly the quality of consciousness in your life will increase.

Shiva is actually helping us by giving us the technique to work on the dream state. He is actually helping us to work on the dream state to increase the awareness in the life state. He is going in the other way; He is not directly working on the life state. He is not directly working on the awareness.

He is working on the dream because he knows that in the living state you can work only to a certain extent. In the living state, whenever you are in this space, you are completely occupied by the outer world. You don't have time to work on the spiritual line.

You don't have time to work on meditation. Because when you are in this space, all your time is taken away by the outer world and you are continuously bothered, continuously you are thinking about how to expand your house, how to get a bigger car or to how to create a bigger bank balance. Your energy is totally in the other direction.

But, in the dream level, you have no other business. You know if you buy a house and you do complete housekeeping in the dream state, it is not going to work. In this level, you are more available.

That is why Shiva is trying to work on this level to improve the consciousness in this level. For the result of life and death level, Shiva is working in the dream and deep sleep level. He is not asking you to work directly on life and death because the more he gives you the techniques about life and death, the more you can be clear that you will not practice.

I have seen that whenever I give a technique to people, the first thing they will say is, 'Master, we don't have time. We don't have time.' All their time is completely occupied. When they are in the conscious state, all their time is completely occupied with outer world. Because the outer world looks very solid, strong, as if it is a reality, as if everything is truth.

So, even if I try my best, I can't convince people. Not only I can't convince, even you can't convince yourself to put more time or more energy into spirituality, into meditation, into awareness, into bringing consciousness.

In the unconscious level, at least that energy, that space if it can be used to bring more and more awareness into your being, if it can be used to raise the level of consciousness in your being, it will reflect in your life.

If the quality of your dream changes and as a result if the quality of your deep sleep state changes, then the quality of your life will also change. The quality of your dreams and the quality of your life are both directly connected with each other. Life is nothing but daydreaming. Dream is nothing but nightlife.

Nightlife is dream; daydream is life.

In the day, whatever you do, you call it as life. In the night, whatever you do, you call it as a dream. In the day, if you are not able to do anything, you call it as death. In the night, if you are not able to do anything, you call it as deep sleep.

In the day if you have three things, trividhi, experiencer, experienced and the experience, it is called life. I can give you the example. If you have all these three, coffee, the person who drinks the coffee and the experience of the coffee state in the daytime, it is called life. In the daytime, if you don't have all these three, it is called death.

In the nighttime, if you have all these three, it is called dream. In the nighttime, if you don't have all these three, it is called deep sleep.

Now, you can understand the direct relationship with your dreams, with your deep sleep and with your death and with life itself.

Shiva is trying to give meditation techniques for all kinds of human beings. For people with insomnia, not only will this technique heal them, it can straightaway help them use the time for useful things.

After finishing the explanation, I will exactly explain the technique itself, how to go into that space. If you enter into the technique, not only will your insomnia be healed, it can give you different consciousness, different understanding.

Shiva says,

From gross to subtle to the causal, from waking to dreams into death Let breath move through chakras into Shiva Consciousness.

'In the waking state your prana stays in the forehead. As on now, always your prana stays in forehead. The moment you start moving towards the dream state, it starts coming towards the vishuddhi, throat center. The more you move towards the deep sleep state, it moves towards the anahata, heart center.

It works the same way in death also. The more you are energetic, the more you grow in the life, the more the prana gets centered, accumulated in the forehead. When the incoming breath is bringing more prana and the outgoing breath is going empty, your prana will be centered on the forehead.

If the incoming breath is getting less prana and the outgoing breath is taking more prana, means slowly the prana will slip into vishuddhi, throat center. If the incoming breath is not bringing prana at all, only outgoing breath is taking the prana, means you will fall completely into the heart center.

Understand, if you understand prana, the basic truth about the prana, you will understand life and death, dreams and deep sleep. Both have got the same formula.

Actually, falling from life to death, falling from the waking state to the deep sleep state, both are directly related to prana movement. If the prana movements, the prana coming in, going out is handled properly, you can handle life and death as well as dream and deep sleep.

Both can be handled by handling prana; prana is the thread. If you know how to handle that single thread, you can handle life, death and dream and deep sleep. This single key, single thread called prana can handle dream and sleep, as well as life and death.

It is a very deep, yogic subject. It is a very intense subject. I am trying to explain the intense truth, intense subject, and basic truths about the life, how you grow towards the life or you grow towards the death.

In life, you can see, till a particular age, you will be becoming stronger. After that age, you will be becoming weaker. That point, that center point is what ayurveda calls as peak age or the peak energy.

Going towards life or going towards death, both are directly connected to the prana. Both are directly connected to the movement of the prana shakti.

Same way, moving towards dreams or moving towards deep sleep are both connected to the movement of prana. If you can handle the prana to control dreams and deep sleep, you will be able to handle the prana to handle life and death as well.

Shiva says very beautifully that if you can be aware of dreams, if you can be aware when you fall into the dream state, when your consciousness is slowly fading away, whenever you are falling asleep, whenever your consciousness is slowly fading away, if you can remain aware, you will be able to change the dream itself.

One more thing, let you be very clear, if you are able to change your dreams the first thing you will do is you will stop dreaming. You will stop dreaming because you know the uselessness of dreams. You know you are wasting time and energy in dreams.

Those who can be aware of dreams will never dream. Those who are aware of life will never take one more birth. That is why in the East, all spiritual scriptures, whether the Vedas or Dhammapada or Jain sutra or Guru Granth Sahib, any spiritual book, are aimed at only one goal: not taking one more birth. Only one goal: moksha.

A person who is aware of dreams will never dream. He will simply stop dreaming. A person who is aware of life will not have the desire to live. He will simply stop the life pattern. He will not take one more body.

When you become aware of dreams, you stop dreaming and you simply enter into deep sleep. In the same way, when you become aware of life you stop living and you enter into death.

Now, you need to understand one important thing. When I use the word death, I don't mean you will commit suicide. When I say that when you become aware of life you enter into death, I don't mean you will commit suicide.

You will stop living in the normal way. You will stop living with identity. You won't carry it and you won't give importance to identity. That is why enlightened masters are called dead people.

Actually, enlightened people are dead as far as this world is concerned. They don't have identity or they don't have life as you understand. Their life cannot be called any more as life.

Practically, if you want to give any term to their life, the only term that you can give is death. They are not alive as you think. That is the reason, again and again, all the scriptures say, the spiritual people are called 'reborn'. They are no longer alive as you think.

The moment one is aware of dreaming one stops dreaming. The moment one is aware of life one stops living the way one used to.

When you are in deep sleep, you are beyond dreaming. The same way, when you stop living, you are beyond life. The games of life can never torture you.

Life will look just vague or like a film. It will look like a film. It won't penetrate and it won't disturb your inner space.

Let me give you the gist of this whole sutra: By bringing more and more prana into your ajna chakra, the third eye and being aware when the prana falls into the anahata when you fall asleep, you will have power over the dreams. You will be able to alter and arrange your dreams as you wish.

Because of this power, you will simply stop dreaming. When you can stop dreaming and fall into sleep, when you can control your dream and sleep as you want, be very clear that you will have the tremendous power over life and death because dreams and deep sleep are made of the same stuff in which life and death are made.

For example, if you remember you are a doctor or a lawyer constantly in your daytime, you will remember the same in your dream also. If you are taught to remember something in the daytime constantly, you will remember the same in the night also.

That is why if you are afraid when you are studying that you may fail in any of your exams, the very fear will reflect in your dreams. Always, you will have the dream as if you missed the exam, you did not go to the exam, or on that day something has happened, you are sick. You will always have this type of dream. This is the impact of life over the dream.

Now, Shiva is asking you to work on the dream, change the dream and change the consciousness of the dream so that it impacts your life.

So far we know only one route. We know that by penetrating or changing our life we can touch our dreams. Now, Shiva is telling us how to touch our life from our dreams. It is because in dreams you don't have to go for a job. In your dreams you don't have to work for your living. In dreams, naturally, by very nature, you don't believe anything is important.

You are not bothered about building a house in dreams, buying a car in dreams or having bank balance in dreams. But, you are really concerned about buying a house in the waking state, building your bank balance in the waking state. You are bothered about your car in the waking state.

Trying to do the spiritual work in the waking state is difficult because you are occupied with so many things.

But, trying to do some spiritual work in your dreams is possible because there is no need to do anything in the dream state. So, Shiva is working from the other way. He is asking you to improve, to develop the awareness, consciousness, in the dream state.

Now, let us go to the practical side of the technique. You are supposed to be aware of your being and of the prana movement when you fall into the dream state. When you fall asleep the prana moves from the ajna to anahata. When you are falling asleep you will travel through the same route. When you are dying as well you will travel through the same route.

If you become aware of the route when you are falling asleep, you will become aware when you are dying also. If you become aware when you are falling asleep and you are able to handle and control that route, you will be aware in the same way when you are falling to death.

When you fall asleep prana moves from your ajna to the heart center. Whenever you grow weak, you become weaker and weaker, whether you are traveling towards sleep or traveling towards death, prana will be falling to anahata, it will be falling towards the heart. Be aware at that moment. You will then have direction over dreams and over death itself.

If you can be aware when the prana falls into the heart center everyday, you will stop, alter, and manage your dreams and deep sleep. If you are aware of prana slipping from ajna to anahata once and for all means at the end of your life you will be able to stop and you will be able to change your life and death.

If you want, you can extend. If you want, you can bring it little early. If you want, you can postpone. You can play in whatever way you want.

Here, Shiva gives the ultimate technique to predict or postpone death itself. Be very clear, these are not theories. These are all the truths of thousands of years of research and development of our rishis. Our rishis have done thousands of years of research and development in the human consciousness. These are all the truths published by them after thousands of years of their research and development.

Let you be very clear, this technology, these techniques can directly develop the quality of your life from today. You don't have to think, 'Oh! If I practice this technique for ten years, maybe in the eleventh year, it will give results.' No!