Your Breath – The Key to Experience🔗

urdhve praano hy adho jeevo visargaatmaa paroccharret utptidvitayasthaane bharanaad bharitaa sthitih

Oh Parasakti, as you express your nature unceasingly in the upward and downward breaths, be aware of the originating points between the breaths and Shiva Consciousness.

Shiva starts his response to Devi with the word:

Shiva replies addressing Devi,

Sri Bhairava uvaca

Bhairava is the Consciousness, the Cosmic Consciousness that is beyond the mind and all that can be grasped by the mind. Shiva is Bhairava. The word Shiva means causeless auspiciousness. When the Consciousness is present, causeless auspiciousness is present. All that happens is for the good.

When we accept that all that happens around us happens for a reason we accept life. We then live life. Otherwise we just bear with life. We struggle, we resist and we try to outwit life. That does not work.

Vedanta talks about 'srishti drishti' and 'drishti srishti'. 'drishti' is to see and 'srishti' is creation. The first word 'drishti srishti' means that we see the world as it is. We make no attempt to amend, alter, add, subtract and change. The second word 'srishti drishti' refers to creating a reality that corresponds to our perceptions.

Our perceptions are always fantasies. Instead of accepting the world as it is and live life as it unfolds we try to fit it to our fantasies. All our sufferings arise out of this effort. Once we let go and accept life as it unfolds, there is pure bliss.

Shiva does not waste words here. After the preliminary response to Bhairavi, his beloved Devi, he now gives her the answers that she seeks in the form of techniques. Each sutra from now on, each aphorism in the form of a verse, is a technique that can be practised and results achieved.

Straightaway Shiva is entering into the techniques. He is not giving any intellectual introduction. He is not giving any teachings. Let's enter into the Sutra then we will see the meaning, we will understand it.

Sri Bhairava uvaca Oorthve prano yaado jeevo Visargatma parochareth Otma titvideyasthane Varanatve thereestithahee

Oh Parasakti, as you express your nature unceasingly in the upward and downward breaths, be aware of the originating points between the breaths and Shiva Consciousness

To tell you honestly, this is the first spiritual book without an introduction. It aims straight at the point of enlightenment. He is not interested in wasting his time nor is he interested in giving us words. He is not interested in giving us any teachings. No teachings, no words, straight to the subject, straight to the point of enlightenment. He is not interested in convincing us.

Let me be honest, all teachings, almost all teachings are given either to convince us that the teacher is great or to convince the teacher that what he believes is the Truth. Teachings are given either to convince us that the teacher is a great person or for the teacher to convince himself that his teachings are great. Only then teachings are given. If there is no need for convincing, only techniques are given. Here, Shiva doesn't have any need to convince Devi, his beloved. He is straightaway giving the technique.

Be very clear, never learn from a person who has to convince you about his authority. It just shows that he will be talking too many big things that neither you understand nor he himself understands, simply because he has the big job of convincing you.

Listen to this beautiful story.

This book is the basis of Kashmiri Shaivism. The only, I can say, the only living religion, or the only living tradition, which has carried the light of Shiva, light of Shaivism, the energy of Shiva till today.

One Kashmiri Shaivait pundit went to his King and said, 'King, I wanted to teach you the Shiva Sutras and I want to initiate you.'

King said, 'I don't feel like receiving this knowledge or initiation. First you read it fully and understand and then come to me.'

Pundit was taken aback. He said, "I have read for last 12 years, I have mastered it completely."

King again said, 'No go back and read again, then come.'

After six month, pundit again came. 'Now I wanted to teach you, now I have read everything.'

King said, 'No, go back, read little more, then come.'

After six months, again the pundit came.

King said, 'No, go back and practice, then come.'

Pundit was shocked. He started thinking, 'I think somewhere I'm missing something.' He went back and this time started practicing what he read.

Six months passed and he did not go back to the King. He was sitting in his ashram in the forest blissfully. The King suddenly remembered this man and told his ministers, 'Please go and find out what has happened to the Pundit.'

All the servants of the King came to the Pundit and they said, 'Sir, are you not coming to the King, are you not coming to the Palace to teach him?'

Pundit said, 'No, I am not interested. No I don't feel like teaching anyone.'

The ministers returned and told the King what the Pundit said. The King said, 'Now I can go and learn from him. Now it is time, now he has ripened, I can go and learn from him.'

Now, Pundit doesn't have any need to convince the King about his greatness. If there is a need to convince the disciple, if there is a need to convince the student, be very clear, Truth cannot be expressed hundred percent.

If the bridge of trust has already happened, then sharing the truth is possible.

I always tell people, do not think that to doubt you need intelligence. To doubt you don't need intelligence, just intellect is enough.

Yesterday one devotee was asking me, 'What is this Master? You always encourage doubting and questioning but suddenly you changed the whole trend. Yesterday, you started saying, only fools doubt, only fools question.'

See, please understand that doubting and questioning are good for accumulating knowledge, but not to experience.

If you just want to learn, if you want more and more words, if you want teachings, doubting is beautiful, questioning is beautiful. But when it comes to techniques, doubting or questioning is not going to help. Straightaway if you want to experience, only trust can help you.

I always tell people, When intellect is ripened, it becomes intelligence. When emotion ripens, it becomes trust, when your being ripens, it becomes enlightenment.

If your intellect has reached its peak, the experience showers Intelligence. If your emotion has reached its peak, the experience showers trust. If your being has reached its peak, the experience showers enlightenment.

To doubt you don't need intelligence, just intellect is enough. You can doubt anything. The more you doubt, the more you question, the more people will start respecting you. No, it's a Truth. If you just want to show yourself as a great person, simply start doubting everybody and start criticizing everybody. It's a beautiful technique, start criticizing everybody, start doubting everybody, start questioning everybody, you will become a great scholar and philosopher, and people will start respecting you.

Here, no teachings, straightaway Shiva enters into the technique. He does not even say, 'Now I am starting meditation techniques.' Even that much he is not saying, He goes straight to the technique. He says, 'Start doing it.' He is not speaking about anything else. No introduction, no teachings.

Yesterday one devotee asked me, 'What is this Master? When you spoke about the Bhagavad Gita during your discourses on the Gita, you said that Gita is the ultimate book. Yesterday you pulled the Gita completely down. Now you say Shiva Sutras is the ultimate book.'

See, Gita is a beautiful book to start. It has got a little bit of sastra (scripture), little bit of stotra (praise or devotion for God), and a little bit of sutra (collection of aphorisms). There are some techniques and there are some stotra, the glory part, and there is also sastra, which gives you the intellectual base. It's like a mix of everything. But the danger is that we may miss the essence. We may get caught in the sastra or stotra, and we may lose the sutra part. We may lose the technique part. It's a mixture.

Whenever we mix things, there is always the possibility of confusion. We may miss the essence of the message and we may miss the truth of the experience. But here, we cannot miss the truth for it's a fool-proof book. Anybody who goes through this book cannot miss what is being said. It's a fool-proof technology, we can't escape, and we can't miss the truth because here nothing else is there, no sugar-coating, nothing. Straightaway Shiva gives the truth, nothing else. There is no teaching, no intellectual stuff.

There is no need to avoid anything, there is no need to use your intellect to separate, to analyze what is truth and what is not truth and you don't have to use your intellect at all. As far as this book is concerned no preparation is required except to open it and start practicing. It's a practical manual, it's a work book. That is why it contains no teachings. This is not for the people who are yet to be convinced. It's a work book for the people who want to practice.

I have brought few stories to tell you all about the teachings, about how teachings work.

A patient goes to a psychiatric doctor and says, 'Doctor, I have had enough. It is too much to bear. I can't run my life like this. I don't know what I can do but one thing I know is that I can't live my life in this same way. I have too many problems.'

The psychiatrist replies, 'Yes, we all have problems, I know. Let's try to help each other. I'll start four sessions at a week, hundred dollars per session. We'll start from tomorrow.'

Patient says, 'Yes, Doctor, I understand, this will solve your problem, what about mine?'

So teachings may solve the problems of the teacher, but not of the student. All teachings are like that. Either they are given as commandments or as theories. One thing, at least with commandments you know that they are directly given to you. But when you start reading theological theories, in a very cunning, subtle way the commandments are inserted into your inner space. Logically you are convinced, without being told to, to follow these rules. Logically you are convinced about these teachings. Then great damage, permanent damage is done to your consciousness. Let me be very clear, unless it becomes your experience, any teaching only does damage to your inner space, it does great damage to your Consciousness.

It is better to escape from teachings than having them without the experience.

I have one more story:

One day a farmer suddenly noticed that one of his cows was missing and there was a railroad near his farm. And he sued the railroad company thinking that cow had been hit by a train and killed. The railroad company hired the best lawyer, a big lawyer from the city to settle the matter out of court. Somehow the lawyer convinced the farmer and the farmer accepted 50% of what he was claiming and settled.

After the settlement, after the farmer signed the release form and took the check, the lawyer felt really happy and he was not able to keep quiet. He was talking about his victory and he said, 'I'm really happy I won the case because I didn't have a single witness, I did not have much to stand on in the court. I am happy that we have settled out of court.'

The farmer said, 'Yes, I'm also happy, I was worried yesterday about how to take only half of the amount but today morning the cow came back home. So I agreed.'

Be very clear, neither the farmer nor the lawyer knows what is going on. The farmer is trying to cheat the lawyer while the lawyer thinks he is cheating the farmer.

Similarly, with teachings also, the person who teaches thinks that people are all listening to him, he is talking for them. People who are sitting are thinking, anyhow he is talking what is there to do? I have to sit since I have come here. It becomes a sort of routine. Anyhow, we are stuck. We cannot do anything else. He is going to speak anyway. So, let's listen and try to have a good time.

Please be very clear, neither the teacher knows what he is saying, nor the student understands what he is hearing. All teachings only add more and more words, more and more trouble. That's the reason that here Shiva is not here to convince us, he is here to give the experience.

One more thing, I have always seen a deep inferiority complex in all teachers. Teachers suffer from an inferiority complex. They only start teaching to hide their inferiority complex. See when you are teaching, you can show you are an important person. Really it's a big addiction. You don't realize that it's a big addiction.

Let me tell you a story, it's not story, it is history, his-story.

Shah Jahan, when he was arrested by his own son, Aurangazeb, and imprisoned, he fell sick. Not only did he fall sick, he was just rapidly deteriorating in health. Aurangazeb went to see him since after all it was his father. He went to see him and he saw that Shah Jahan was practically dead. He asked, 'I know you are missing your Kingdom, I can't give that Kingdom back. But tell me something to bring you back to life. I can do something to bring you back to life, to make you alive, to keep you alive. But I can't give you the kingdom, except that ask me for anything.'

Shah Jahan said, 'I don't want your Kingdom, but just give me 30 boys. I'll start teaching them and give them classes.'

Aurangzeb said, 'That is not a big thing, I can give you 100 boys, have a 100 boys.'

He sent 100 boys for Shah Jahan to teach. After a month Aurangazeb came to the prison, he saw Shah Jahan so alive, just like a King. Aurangzeb was not able to understand what had happened. He's so alive, he's back, he was looking just like a King again. He asked the officers, his prison officers, 'What happened? How come he is so alive now?'

The officers said, 'Lord, everyday in the morning he makes all the 100 people sit in front of him and he starts conducting his court. One behaves like he is a minister, another one acts like a soldier and someone else like a spy. Each one is coming and reporting to the King. He makes them do everything that he would do in the court. In the evening he divides them into two groups and makes them fight each other. He does everything that he used to do in court. So psychologically he has regained his feeling of being a King. That is why he is so alive and active.

Be very clear, teaching gives us a big strength, we feel very important. Our ego is strengthened when we teach. That is the reason you will find thousands and thousands of teachers, but not a single student.

Be very clear, never think people who are sitting in front of the teacher are students, no! They are just learning to become a teacher, they are not students, they are just waiting to jump into that seat. You can't directly take the seat, you need to know something. So just for that, they put up with the teacher's teachings. The student thinks, 'Anyhow, alright, tell us whatever you want. One day I want to sit in that chair. For that I also need to repeat all these things. Let me listen'.

Students are polite, they relax, keep quiet, so that they can start their turn, that's all. Never think somebody is a student just because he is sitting in front of the teacher.

All teaching is just a pure ego game. The teacher is trying to show his greatness and the student is just waiting so that he can show his greatness to somebody else. He is just putting up with the teachings so that when the time comes he can start too. That is why I've always seen, the moment class is over, people go back to their house and start teaching.

If we have digested the teachings, we will never feel like opening your mouth. I have seen that even as people listen, in their minds they make notes, 'I should go and tell this to my mother-in-law, I should go and tell this to my father-in-law, I should go and tell this to my friends, I should go and tell this to my wife'. The wife thinks, 'I should go and tell this to my husband'.

You just develop your intellect so that you can use it on your family and friends. You just use all these teachings to support what you want to express, what you want to show off. One more thing, I have seen people sharpening their intellect with my teachings and using it to fulfill their wishes. Whenever they can't get something out of somebody, they will start using these teachings in their own form. In their mind, they will have all the notes, whatever is said, when they go back they will manipulate others the way they want and use it to get what they want.

Let you be very clear, that's the reason why Shiva is not interested in giving any teachings here, he is straight. I think he doesn't want to contribute to the already existing confusions. To tell you honestly, whenever I go to these spiritual bookshops I feel it is pointless to produce more books. Oh God, there are millions of books already! What am I going to write, what am I going to achieve by writing some more books?

Then I decided I should write books at least to tell people not to read books. At least to pass on that message I need to write books, to convince them not to waste their energy in unnecessarily reading, I have to keep writing books. At least to do that, I have to write. That is the reason I have written so many books.

Actually, Ramana Maharishi says beautifully, 'Whenever you can be in the state of ātman, that enlightenment, be in that same ecstasy and bliss. Books that encourage you to go into the experience of bliss and which again and again tell you not to read are books written by great enlightened masters. These masters will always convince you not to be with the books but to enter into the experience. I can say that the ṛṣis (sages) are the only courageous people who said, 'Vedas are not the Ultimate authority. Our scriptures are not ultimate authority. They are mere guides for you to experience.' Our ṛṣis were the most courageous people, let me be very honest. They had the courage to declare the books are not ultimate, that their words were not the ultimate authority, that they were just a help to reach the experience. One more beautiful thing, these ṛṣis were the only people who kept the possibility of updating scriptures open and available for the next generation. We can update our scriptures; there are smṛtis continuously we can update. Updating is possible.

If you read the Gita, Krishna is so beautifully eloquent. He says:

Yatha Yatha hi dharmasya Klanir bhavathi bharatha Arbhyudharma dharmasya Thadatmanam srijyanmagam

Krishna keeps the possibility open. He says, 'Whenever dharma declines again and again I shall come down'. He means that he is keeping the space for the next generation of enlightened masters. He keeps the whole thing open to the following generations, the next master can come up and say, 'Yes, now I have experienced Krishna Consciousness, now I am speaking from the same experience, Come, let's update, let's grow.' The possibility for growth, the possibility for the next generation is kept open with the ṛṣis. They never say, they never claim, 'We are the ultimate authority.' Even software can be updated.

Be very clear, anything that cannot be updated will be outdated. Either update or get outdated. If some scripture can't be updated means it has to be outdated. It has to be outdated. Only that which can be updated can keep living. These are the two important changes that came after the IT revolution in recent times: free knowledge and the possibility of updating.

Five thousand years ago our masters had thought about these two concepts. In Bharat knowledge is still free. In our ashram, we have one year programs where we provide free food, stay, clothes and books to study the spiritual philosophy. Anybody who wants to come and stay is welcome to come and stay and practice for one year. For one whole year, we give free food, stay and syllabus, the atmosphere, the ambience, which is very important and teachers. General descriptions about humanitarian activities are welcome.

In Bharat we believe that knowledge is free and that there is always the possibility of updating. Rishis don't claim they are the ultimate, they don't claim they are the last. They do not kill the idea of updating; they don't stop the growth or the expansion of spiritual intelligence.

Ramana Maharishi says beautifully, 'Read the books of enlightened masters who are constantly telling you to drop books and go deep into experience.' Try to be always in that ecstasy, or bliss or the no-mind space that again and again inspires you to go into that state, instead of reading books.

Here, in this book, Shiva is not even convincing you, he is not even saying, 'Go into experience'. He straightaway gives the technology, straightaway he starts with the technology. This is a beautiful Sutra, the first sutra. Let's enter into the sutra.

*Ūrdhve prāṇo yādo jīvo visargātmā paro’charet utpattisthānayo rbhedāt ātma tattvaṁ dvayīdaṁ vrajet*