Follow Me IN! Follow Me IN! Mental Body🔗

a few points about the gurukul education system that was initiated by enlightened masters. In this system, any child who belongs to the country belongs to the master. The master takes care of all of them and parents have to hand them over to the master and move out of the way.

Up to the age of seven, children in the gurukul were not given the idea of wearing clothes. You might laugh at this, but it is a fact. This was done so that they do not get the idea that they are individual bodies. They were allowed to simply go around and relate with Existence, with the ether straightaway. They were allowed to relate with flowers, forests, trees, and the earth. This ensured that until the child's seventh year, the idea that they are an individual did not form in the mind.

This also taught them not to suppress the opposite gender that is alive in them. They were not given the idea that they are male or female. Understand that when we are born, all of us have the characteristics of both the genders within us. A man is only 51% male and 49% female. Similarly a woman is only 51% female and 49% male. It is our upbringing, dictated by societal rules that classify us into rigid gender differentiation right from birth. Therefore we end up suppressing the opposite gender within us.

In the gurukul system, children were encouraged to keep their gender open. They were also not taught to separate their body from the environment.

Try to follow only these few things with your kids. First, do not separate their upper and lower body with clothes that grip at the waistline. Make them wear single piece clothes that cover the whole body as one. Next, do not encourage anything that will develop the idea in them that they are 'somebody'. We commonly believe that this is what builds their identity and self esteem, but this is where we are making serious mistakes.

In the ancient gurukul system, at the age of seven, both boys and girls were given a meditation technique. Even if they formed such an idea that they are male or female, they used this meditation technique to dilute that imbibed feeling. This meditation technique helped them to flush out the feeling of gender uniqueness again and again, and helped them tune into the collective consciousness. This is what we now call the Gāyatrī Mantra (a sacred chant taught before adolescence). From seven to fourteen, they practiced the Gāyatrī through which they continuously connected to the collective consciousness.

By the age of fourteen, by the time they reached adolescence, they would have had a glimpse of the collective consciousness and its blue print. After they have had the glimpse of the blue print, depending on the intensity of that glimpse, they would be given deeper meditation techniques, so that they could go deeper and deeper into themselves. Thus by the age of 21, they had every opportunity to become enlightened.

I will tell you honestly that there was a time when 70% of all the people were enlightened. The remaining 30% were working towards it. The social structure created by the enlightened masters consisted of people either already enlightened or those who were working towards it. There was no other category. Just two categories: achieved and working towards it: enlightened and seekers! Unfortunately, we have lost that system.

We have a gurukul system in the Bidadi ashram in Bharat. You should see the children… how joyful and alive they are! They wake up at 4:30 am every morning and start their day. They grow up doing various things from worship to studies to travel studies to what not. They are such lucky children, because their hero, their idol is an enlightened being! They unconsciously imbibe the enlightened body language.

Collective consciousness is what we call God. The Whole is what we call God. When you are Whole, you are holy!

You must have heard about the rāsa pūrṇimā described in the Bhagavatam - the full moon night when the rāsa līlā was performed. It refers to the collective experience that Krishna gave his gopikās (his women cowherds). It is a beautiful example of collective consciousness. Most of us have no idea or a wrong idea about the rāsa līlā. It has got nothing to do with the physical plane. It was actually a grand experiencing of collective consciousness. Krishna gave the ultimate experience of collective consciousness to the entire group.

GUILT IS THE ROOT OF THE 'FEAR OF DEATH'

OUR THOUGHTS CAN AFFECT A GLASS OF WATER

Our thoughts and energy flow have the capacity to create and attract incidents and people of the same nature. There is a beautiful research you should know about.

One Japanese doctor Masaru Emoto has done a beautiful research on water and published a book called, 'Hidden Messages from Water'. It is a beautiful book. He is a great scientist. He is not only a scientist, but a person who works on different possibilities untiringly, working on the power of the mind over matter.

He took many cups and filled them with water. All the cups were filled with water of the same chemical composition. Chemically, the water in all the cups was the same. He kept the cups in several rooms. All the environmental conditions like the room temperature, humidity etc. were the same. Everything was controlled perfectly.

Everyday he would enter each of the rooms and relate with the cups of water. In one room, he would create some positive thoughts like peace, bliss and joy for five minutes and come out. He would then go to the next room and create some violent thoughts like war, terrorism, violence and anger and come out. He would go to the third room and chant some words from the Dhammapada, Buddha's teachings. Finally he froze the water from each of the cups and took pictures through a microscope.

His results are published in his book 'Hidden Messages from Water'. The results are simply shocking. The water on which he used positive words was shining like a diamond. The water on which he used negative words looked like a ghost - dark, distorted and dense. The water on which he used Buddha's teachings looked divine and beautiful. Not once or twice, but he did this experiment several hundred times and found the same results. If you find time, go through that book, 'Messages from Water'.

Understand: if your thoughts can affect the water in the outer world - water in a small cup, can't it affect the blood which is flowing in your body? The first thing is to understand that your thoughts can affect the outer world. The second thing is that if you can affect the water in the outer world, why not the water flowing in your body? 80% of your body is filled with water – blood!

NATURAL CALAMITIES ARE A RESULT OF OUR COLLECTIVE NEGATIVITY

If five minutes of one person's negative thoughts can affect one tumbler of water, what happens when so many of us, harbouring so much irritation and negative thoughts, express our thoughts into nature? Won't nature be disturbed? Natural calamities are only because of our collective negativity. When we release so much negativity where do you think all this will be deposited? How else will it be expressed but only in the form of natural calamities.

Today science proves that one glass of water can become negative energy just by one man's five minutes of negative thoughts. Then imagine billions of people constantly radiating negativity, negative thoughts, negative words, and negative energy. Why will the ocean not be affected? Why will tsunamis not happen? Naturally, we are abusing nature by our negativity. We are imbalancing nature by our own negativity, and blaming nature for it.

GUILT – THE GREATEST S IN

A small story:

A great ṛṣi (sage) was doing penance in a deep forest. Suddenly one night, he had an unexpected guest. There was a knock on his door. There was a man standing at the doorway. He requested the ṛṣi, 'Can I stay here tonight? Tomorrow morning I will leave this place.' The ṛṣi said, 'You are welcome. Please come and stay.'

The next morning, the ṛṣi casually inquired, 'Who are you? Where are you from?' The man said, 'Please don't be frightened. I am a thief. Last night, I robbed the palace and escaped. I came to your hut straight away. I am very happy that you took care of me by giving food and shelter. I am leaving. Please bless me.' So saying, the man left.

The ṛṣi felt very disturbed, 'What a big sin I have committed by giving shelter and food to a thief!' He started weeping, not knowing how to atone for the sin. He wanted to wash away his sin. He started praying, 'Oh God, please forgive me. I don't know what I should do to remove the sin. I gave shelter and food to a thief for one full night. Please forgive me.' He was weeping and wailing.

Suddenly he heard a voice from heaven. The voice was also weeping. He was surprised! He asked, 'Who is it weeping?' From above he heard a voice, 'I am God. I am weeping.' Surprised, the ṛṣi asked, 'Why are you weeping?' God replied, 'You gave shelter to the thief for one day. You think that it is a big sin. I am giving him food and shelter everyday. Where will I go and wash my sins? That is why I am weeping.'

There is a beautiful thing to be understood from the story. The ṛṣi had a strong idea that he is holier than the thief. He had more ego than compassion in him. His ego was shaken by God's message.

All our guilt, all our rules, all our morality and all our ideas of right and wrong are created only by these type of ṛṣis and priests. Not all ṛṣis, but the type who think they are holier than others, that they are purer than others, or that they are greater than others. They created the rules that created guilt in you.

According to me, guilt is the greatest sin. At least other sins will punish you after your death. Guilt will punish you when you are alive.

The guilt that retards your growth and puts you into a vicious cycle of misery and suffering is what society feeds on, what religion thrives on. It condemns all the basic emotions that humans have, instead of giving the techniques to transform the base emotions into higher ones.

Actually, if you go to see, all so-called activities of social service are to get rid of the guilt feeling that we might be having 'too much' money. But we don't realize that it is not money that is the problem, but the mind that is the problem. If the mind is not a problem, it will not matter how much money we have.

GO BEYOND RIGHT AND WRONG...

Let us look a little deeper into guilt. What is the root cause of guilt? It is our idea about right and wrong, our understanding about what is right and wrong. Only from that, the guilt starts. What is right? What is wrong? Let us start analyzing.

After all, what is the scale to measure right or wrong? In Hinduism, vegetarianism is considered right. In Christianity, non-vegetarianism is thought to be right. In Hinduism, you can marry only once. In Islam you can marry several times. In Hinduism, you can't drink alcohol and liquor. In Christianity, Jesus himself consumed wine.

There are so many rules and so many regulations in different places, different situations, and different societies. In South Bharat, fish is considered non-vegetarian food. In Bengal they call it gangāphal - fruit from the sacred river Ganga! Bengali Brāhmins, a priestly class of people eat fish. Every Bengali house has a small fish pond in their house. They grow fish. They eat fresh fish. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to eat fish. For Bengalis, fish, sweet, and tobacco are the basic things in their life. Ramakrishna used to smoke. Vivekananda used to smoke. Of course, they smoked not as an addiction but for various practical reasons. Where is the scale for so all the so-called morality? It is just local customs! In the course of time, they become the morality.

If you read the ancient scriptures or the epics of Bharat, in the Mahabharata, Draupadi was married to five men! So many kinds of life systems, so many different customs are there. Mother Kunti had five sons from five different men! Draupadi lived with five men!

At different times, different rules were formed by different leaders. In a particular society, certain things that were considered morality were considered to be immoral in another society! Here in America, there are similar moral standards that I saw. In one state, casinos are allowed, whereas in the neighbouring state, casinos are illegal. A river separates the two states, and the border line between the two states passes through the river. So, inside the river itself, there is a big casino! On one side it is legal, and on the other side it is illegal! So, where is the scale of right or wrong? For one person, a particular food is amṛta (nectar), whereas for another person, the same food is poison!

Where is the scale to measure what is right and what is wrong? There is no scale. Please understand that morality should happen out of integrity, not out of guilt. Guilt is a wedge inserted into your inner space. It makes you schizophrenic. It makes you take on double standards.

What do I mean by integrity? Being in the present moment and being only ONE and not many; seeing reality without the play of the mind. Once the mind steps in, duality also steps in. Just by being intensely aware of the present moment, you can achieve integrity where there is only ONE and not two or three or many, fighting in you. When you are aware, you will be ONE and moral. When you decide to stray from awareness, you will be many and immoral. Morality has to do with awareness, not with any other social rules. Awareness causes you to spontaneously take the right action in the right situation. Morality can very well cause you to do the wrong thing in the right situation because it doesn't have the right base. If you integrate yourself, you will be centered upon awareness. If you remain fragmented, you will depend on morality for guidance.

People who create rules and regulations in order to create guilt in you, are the ones who hide their personal lives under covers because their personal lives would be totally nonconforming to the rules set up by them. But they set up the rules so that they can rule you and exploit you. Once you have the idea of guilt sown in you, you can be cheated and exploited easily by society. That is why guilt is the first thing that society sows in you. With guilt, it is easier to control you.

SANATANA DHARMA –THE ULTIMATE RULE BOOK

In Santana Dharma (another name for Hinduism*), we have two main scriptures – the shruti* and the smriti. Sanatana Dharma is the only courageous religion to have two kinds of scriptures. In all other religions on the planet earth, they have only one scripture, only one book which is considered to be the ultimate! No religion allows its holy book to be updated. But Sanatana Dharma is one of the courageous religions which says its book can be updated.

SHRUTI AND SMRITI

The main scriptures are divided into two portions: shruti (*Vedas*) and smriti (traditional sacred books). Shruti means the ultimate laws about enlightenment - the concept or realization about the universe. Smriti means the social laws, day-to-day rules and regulations which, when followed, will take one along the path to realize the goal of the shruti. The courageous people declared that smriti can be changed. From time to time, enlightened masters can create new smriti, because we know that no morality can be morality forever. No law can be law forever, because morality and laws are based on the situation, on the type of people and culture at that time.

For example, if the deer population increases too much, you are allowed to hunt deer. In the same way, once upon a time in Bharat, there were too many cows. That is why they started offering cows in the ritualistic sacrifices. Once the cow population became too low, they started to worship the cows.

The rules are created to maintain equilibrium in society and nature, to maintain harmony in the society. When we all live together we need some basic understanding and rules to happily co-exist. For example, you will not try to kill me so that I will not kill you. That is all. Then both of us can live happily without fear. Like this, a few basic things are assumed and come into being. Slowly, by and by, they become rules. They become morality.

The problem is that as long as you understand the root of the moral rules, you will neither behave immorally nor will you get disturbed by them. When you don't understand the rules, once the rules are just spoon fed, when they become a set of forced rules, then not only will you try to escape from the rules, but you will also create a deep guilt in you with regard to them.

THE NATURAL I NSTINCT TO BREAK RULES

When anything is a forced rule, you always try to get around it. For example, you always speed when you don't see the cop! Take children as an example. When you tell them not to do something, they will be most tempted to do it. As long as you don't mention anything about doing it or not doing it, they may not even be bothered about it. But the moment you tell them not to do it, they will be looking to do it.

Actually, there is a taste, a thrill in doing what you are not supposed to do.

A small story:

Once, a man became addicted to smoking. He came to me asking for help, 'Please help me to quit smoking. I don't know how I became addicted. Please help me.'

I asked him, 'How did you start?'

He replied, 'I never wanted to smoke. In fact, I hated the smell! One day my friend and I were talking at a street corner. My friend was smoking. My father saw from a distance and thought that I was also smoking.

When I went home he started yelling at me. I tried my best to explain to him that I was not smoking. But he was not ready to listen to me. Then I thought, anyhow, he is already thinking that I smoke. He is not willing to believe me. Then, why not smoke? That is why I started smoking.'

Most of the time, you develop an instant taste for something if you are asked not to do it. You feel a kind of a joy or satisfaction by doing it. That is the basic tendency in every human being. When you say 'no' to your parents, you think that you prove you are independent. As long as you say 'yes', you are only a child. When you start saying 'No,' you feel you have matured.

You can see this in teenagers also. The moment they say 'No,' they think they are grown up and mature. Only because of the joy in saying 'no' to moral rules, there are so many rebellious groups, so many gangs. The habit of sowing guilt in people has backfired in this fashion. The general feeling is that when you say no, you prove that you are somebody special, you are somebody different.

DEAD RULES VS LIVE INTELLIGENCE

First, you try your best to escape from it. Next, you create a deep guilt inside your being for escaping from it.

A small story about how we get caught up in superstitions:

An economic forecaster was known to have a horseshoe prominently displayed above the door frame of his office.

One of his colleagues saw it one day and asked him why it was there.

The forecaster replied, 'It is a good luck charm that helps in my forecasts.'

The colleague was surprised and asked, 'But do you really believe in this superstition?'

The forecaster replied, 'Of course not!'

The colleague was confused. He then asked, 'Then why do you keep it?'

'Well,' said the forecaster, 'it works whether you believe in it or not!'

Just see how strongly influential superstitions can get! It virtually destroys the intelligence in us. This is how we start making up rituals and following them with no clue about the truth behind them. We give in to a set of blind rules in our lives and fight with them as well.

Another small story:

One great pundit (learned man) wanted to take a bath in the sacred river Ganga. He had a kamandalu (small water pot) with him. He wanted to keep it in a safe place where no one would pick it up. He looked around, but found nobody trustworthy enough to hold the kamandalu while he went to take a bath. So he then made a small pit on the banks of the Ganga, put his kamandalu in the pit and covered it with sand. To mark the spot, he put a heap of sand on top of the pit. He then went to take his bath.

There was a farmer who watched the pundit from some distance. He thought to himself, 'Oh, before taking a bath in the Ganga, one should make a small sand heap!' He proceeded straight to the banks of the river, made a sand heap next to the pundit's and went in for a bath.

Another man who was going to have a bath saw the farmer doing this and thought, 'Oh, it seems like a tradition to make a sand heap before taking a bath in the river Ganga.' So, he too made a small sand heap and went for his bath.

By and by, all the people started making heaps before taking a bath in the Ganga.

The pundit finished his bath and came out of the river. When he came out, he saw hundreds of sand heaps all over the Ganga banks! He was shocked! Not only that. Now he had a big problem: where was his kamandalu? Which heap was it under? He started searching. He started to destroy the sand heaps to look under them.

Suddenly the farmer came by and shouted, 'Why are you destroying our Shiva lingas (symbol of Lord Shiva)? Why are you destroying them? You are a pundit. You should have some sense! Don't you know that you are supposed to make a Shiva linga before taking your bath? And not only that. You are disturbing our Shiva lingas! Don't you have sense?'

The pundit was shocked at the farmer's words and knew instantly what had happened. A heap of sand naturally looks like a Shiva linga! The pundit thought, 'What I did to save my kamandalu has become a Shiva ritual now! I seem to have started a ritual!

Of course, the pundit had to leave without his kamandalu.

If you look into your life, there are so many sand heaps that have entered in the same way! There are so many speed breakers and so many obstacles that have entered your life without your understanding. In the course of time, many regulations that had meaning earlier, have become rules without any meaning now!

In Bharat, during the times before electricity, clothes would not be sewn after sunset since sewing was done by hand with a needle and the tailors had only dim lanterns with which to do their work. Naturally, at the nighttime, in the dim light of the candle or lantern, it would be a strain to sew. Therefore, the work was always confined to daylight hours. But even now in Bharat, the eldery people in the house will say, 'It is not a good thing to sew after dusk!' The very reason for not sewing at night doesn't even exist anymore. Electricity and bright lights are there! But it has become a ritual for them without any connection to its original purpose!

When you do not have or are not given the right understanding, things become dead rules in your life. When you have understanding, any rule can become a technique to live life happily. Rules and rituals are actually techniques for your own enlightenment. When I say enlightenment, I mean a blissful life full of clarity. Of course, when pursued deeply, it will lead to your ultimate enlightenment. When you are given the right understanding, you will understand that any rule was created just for you and others around you to live a happy and blissful life.

When the spirit of the rules is understood, there won't be any problem falling in line with it. And the juice will be there in your action or commitment to it. But if the spirit is missed, everything is missed. It becomes like setting out with the wrong foot. Take meditation, for example. Meditation itself is done to go inwards irrespective of the outer world scenes. I have seen some people, before starting their meditation routine, they will create so much noise in the house. They will go around telling everyone to keep quiet. They will practically take the whole house to task just for going about its normal routine when they are going to meditate! If they understood the spirit behind meditation, they would not be doing this. Only when the spirit is missed, things become dead rituals. They miss and mess!

ANY RULE I NTERNALIZED WILL CREATE GUILT IN YO U

Generally, when you don't understand the root of morality, you start living in a dull and dead way, with guilt. According to me, any rule when internalized, will create guilt in you. That is because by your very nature you are a person who aspires for freedom. It is called svabhava swatantrata - free by the very nature. This means your nature itself is freedom. You are a nithya mukta -an eternally free person. You are by nature eternally free. You never want to be caged! You never want to be a slave of any rule!

Your entire struggle is nothing but the struggle for freedom. Even your search for money is the search for freedom. If you have more money, you have more choices or more freedom to choose a bigger house, a bigger car, more comforts etc. Your search for more choice is your search for freedom - the real search! Your search for money is nothing but the search for freedom.

RULES EXPLOIT YOUR FEAR AND GREED AND LEAD TO GUILT

So, by your very nature you are searching for freedom. When some morality is taught to you as a rule, either you try to get around it or if you can't, you take revenge on the people who imposed the rule on you. Imposed morality always causes you to be or feel revengeful. You may not be obviously revengeful, but it will be there in you as a subtle thread.

For example, people repeatedly tell me, 'My son is not taking care of me.' Be very clear that your son may be your foremost enemy because you have given him so many rules, so many regulations throughout his life. You must have given him so many laws. You would have been almost a master for him when he was young! Naturally, while one part of his mind will have respect for you, the other part will always harbour a revenge towards you. Don't think this is something new that I am telling you or this has to do with your son alone. No! This is a basic fact in society. It is not spoken about because it is too much truth for people to bear! Which son or which father will agree if I told them this fact? See, this fact is such a deep rooted one that most people are blissfully oblivious of. But it is my duty to draw your attention to such base level things.

There are a few people who try to give you rules in a very subtle or cunning way. They exploit your fear and greed by showing you ideas of hell and heaven and create the desire for heaven and a fear of hell. They create so many concepts of hell and heaven and sell them to you. They say, 'If you practice these things, you will be rewarded with heaven; if you practice those things, you will be punished with hell.' This concept of heaven and hell is a subtle way of exploiting your being. When you are given rules based on greed and fear, you start creating a deep guilt in yourself.

There is a subtle relationship between fear and guilt. It is like this: when you accept fear, you go beyond it. But when you suppress the fear, when you reject it, it transforms into guilt. Anything suppressed, anything that is dealt with against nature, leads directly to guilt. The feeling of not being true to oneself is the root cause of guilt.

Many times you justify your guilt by labeling it as responsibility. No! How does one differentiate between guilt and responsibility?

If you get into a low feeling when you think about it, it is guilt. If you feel intensity and integrity, it is responsibility! So you cannot confuse the two and try to escape. This is the clear scale. If you are pulled to low energy at the thought of what you did, then it is guilt. But if you feel good about it, then it is responsibility.

A guilty person can never be at ease with himself. He will always lack self-confidence. He starts looking for a leader for guidance. This is where religion steps in and exploits people. It exploits the deep guilt through a set of moral codes, through a set of do's and don'ts. The same religion can work in a positive way to get you out of guilt. How can it work? It can work through the power of prayer. You can exercise the power of prayer to intensify and integrate yourself. Prayer has immense power, especially when you are looking to integrate yourself. Instead of following religion as a set of rules, you could take it up as a technique to integrate yourself. As a sheer outcome of the power of prayer, the guilt in you will dissolve.

If you live from moment to moment, there is no question of repenting for what you have done; guilt will have no place. Guilt is not real. It does not have existential reality. You can choose to drop your guilt at any time because it is not natural. We carry the load of guilt most of the time because of our convoluted thinking.

NOBODY CAN LIVE LIFE BASED ON ANY LAW

An important thing… This is one of the ultimate laws that is very difficult to understand, but one of the ultimate laws. Nobody can live their life based upon any law. When I say nobody, I mean NOBODY. When I say any law, I mean ANY LAW. Life is much superior to laws. Any law, rule or regulation is based on a certain understanding of life. But life is beyond all our understanding and logic! That is why.

People ask me, 'Why is this life created at all?' I tell them, this WHY can never be answered because this WHY is based on your logic. But life is based on God's logic. Your logic and God's logic can never meet with each other. His logic is so big, so vast, and so infinite. You can never meet His logic.

Life is created by Him. Rules are created by you. Life is created by Him. Laws are created by you. Naturally, your laws can never match or fit in with God's logic orwith God-created life.

Life is natural. Laws are societal. Life is physical. Laws are mental.

All your ideas, all your do's and don'ts, all your morality, all your 'rights or wrongs' are given to you by society. You are called a saint or a sinner only by society. As long as society labels you a saint, you are a saint. The moment society labels you a sinner, you are a sinner.

If you kill someone in the society, you will be called a murderer; you will be punished. But if you kill someone on the battlefield you will be called a hero. You will be given a big award!

When you start internalizing the laws of society, you create a deep wound in your being. You destroy your innate intelligence. According to me, children can be given a set of rules initially so that they don't move from the path of consciousness. But soon, they too have to be given the understanding of life and the need to operate from consciousness instead of conscience. If you live with consciousness, you will automatically live a moral life. To start understanding the need to live with consciousness, just look into your morality. You will realize that it is only skin deep. Society's morality is only skin deep, whereas consciousness comes from the very being.

Your consciousness is always trying to break through your conscience. Your consciousness continuously fights with conscience. Conscience is societal. Consciousness is natural. Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness.

People ask me, 'What is this Swamiji? You are pulling down the whole social structure. Then how can we all live morally?' I tell them, 'Be very clear. It is only for kids that you need forced morality. For them you need to say, 'Keep quiet, I will give you candy.' Of course, nowadays kids reply, 'I am happy. I don't need your candy. Who cares for your candy!' For a child you can say that you will give candy or you will restrict him. You can impose morality based on fear or greed. But for yourself, it is time to grow up. You are not kids anymore. Just stand up with consciousness.

A beautiful story:

Once there was a Zen master. For some reason, the king declared that the next morning, the master must be killed. The Zen master was informed of this. The king had also said that until the next morning, the master could do whatever he wanted to do. He could live as he liked. He was given full freedom.

Even after the death sentence, the master was seen following his usual routine. He did his usual gardening, fetched water from the well, cooked, served the disciples and so on. He lived in exactly the same way as before, following the same routine.

Some of his disciples were surprised and asked him, 'Master, tomorrow morning you are going to die. Don't you want to do something else, something special?'

The master replied beautifully, 'My life flows from my understanding. This is the best way I can ever live. I am totally fulfilled. I have nothing else to do whether I am going to live for 24 hours or two hours. This is exactly what I want to do and what keeps me happy. I have nothing else as better enjoyment.'

For us it is different. If someone gives us this same deadline, that we will be alive only until the next morning, and that we could do whatever we wanted to do, just imagine what we will do! Be very clear: if you would do anything other than your daily routine, it means that you have lived your entire life based on morality that was just skin deep. This is the best scale to judge. What does it mean? It means that you are just controlling yourself, fighting with the morality imposed upon you every moment. You are not living your life with blissful consciousness.

As long as you don't live your life in its entirety, you will always feel that you are missing something. The feeling that you are missing something is the root cause for the fear of death also. Mostly, our fear of death is not the fear of dying itself. It is the fear of not having lived our life fully. Guilt is the root of the fear of death. When we harbour guilt, we don't live life fully. When we don't live life fully, we fear death.

GUILT IS THE ROOT OF GREED

Guilt is the reason for greed also. It works like this: when you are habituated feeling guilty for most of your expressions or actions, you stay away from freely expressing yourself and doing things. Although this may save you from falling into guilt, you unconsciously develop a greed for real life. Over many years, the suppression causes greed to build up in you.

If you have the intensity to break free from your guilt and express yourself, then you are liberated. But most often you won't even have the clarity that it is the guilt that is causing the struggle within you. You will simply fall into depression because you can't pursue the goals of your greed.

When greed arises in small doses and you are taught to deal with it with awareness, fulfilling the greed consciously can be a joyful experience. But what happens? When greed arises, society starts labeling it and condemning it. You start feeling guilty about all your desires. You start suppressing. Then the problem starts. The suppressed greed becomes either depression or some other aggressive expression.

THE STONE OF GUILT IN THE RIVER OF YOUR MIND - THE BLOCK IN THE FLOW OF INTELLIGENCE

You are designed to move like a freely flowing river. Guilt is like a rock in the path of the water. It has been placed in you by society. A flowing river looks so happy, does it not? Society has branded happiness itself as a sin. That is the problem. That is why you will notice, when everything is going smoothly and happily, there will be a lurking feeling of guilt in you. We are taught by society that being happy and enjoying life is not our natural state. So we feel guilty. But when we feel sad and depressed, do we ever feel guilty? No! This is because you are taught very strongly that life is meant to be suffered and endured, with happiness only being allowed once in a while. This is also why people can't stand it when you are happy and smiling all the time. They try their best to bring you back to 'so-called' reality by instilling guilt in you.

When you are enjoying, dancing or relaxing at the beach for example, suddenly what happens? Guilt will start rising in you about all the work that you have kept pending, about the responsibilities you have put aside. This is wrong. Work while you work and play while you play, that's all!

Even when you are around THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, if I give you a little too much attention, you start feeling guilty, is it not? There is no need to feel this way. Guilt has no basis and it simply destroys your whole life. If you can live without guilt, you will enjoy every moment and you will have no regrets in life.

The problem is that our being is a crowd of voices that don't belong to us. Understand: your being is no longer only your being. It is a totality of your mother's voice, your father's voice, your teacher's voice, your neighbor's voice and what not! All these voices are in there. If there is only one voice, you will never have any problem. Your mind will move like a river. But there are so many voices telling you so many things and pulling you back into guilt.

As long as you flow like a river, you will express extraordinary intelligence in your life. You will live with an energy that is overflowing every minute. The moment you allow guilt in you, the moment you are stopped in your free flow, you create energy clots inside your being. The older the culture the more is the guilt. We always feel proud of our ancient culture. If we are able to keep the idea behind the culture alive, it is alright. But most often, the older the roots of your culture, the more trouble for you because the more misconstrued and misinterpreted they will be.

ANGER – A WAY TO COME OUT OF GUILT

You might have noticed that when you were harbouring guilt, if you got angry, the guilt reduced. The moment you express your anger, your guilt is released. This happens because anger and guilt are two sides of the same coin. The moment you become angry with the person who created the guilt in you, you come out of the guilt. If you created guilt based on somebody's opinion of something, the guilt is basically because of the respect that you have for that person. If you did not have respect for that person, it would not cause such a deep guilt in you. But the moment you become angry, naturally the respect is lost. So when the respect is lost, the guilt also disappears. You understand that you have been exploited and hence disturbed.

I am reminded of another incident that I share often at my discourses. One American woman brought her son to me with a complaint. She said, 'My son is not obeying my words, Swamiji. Please advise him.' I felt a little awkward. I myself never obeyed my mother when I was a boy! How can I advise him to obey? The boy looked very intelligent. But I had to do the job.

So I started talking to him, 'Why don't you obey your mom? She even made me obey her just now.' The boy asked, 'She herself is not happy. If I follow her words, where will I end up? I will also end up in the same way as her. Why are you asking me to obey her? Why are you asking me to listen to her?'

I was shocked. He made good sense. Somehow I managed to convince him. I think the next generation kids might even sue their mothers or fathers if they fall into depression. They will say, 'These people didn't give me the correct mental setup. That is why now I am very depressed.' So watch out. If you try to sow the wrong seeds in your child, you might be in trouble later in your life.

We have to find out some method by which we do not create guilt in the kids' minds. According to me, intelligence is more solid than morality. Consciousness is more solid than conscience.

Of course you need a little patience to create consciousness in the child. You need to work with them, explaining every step to them. You can't give consciousness in teaspoons. You can give conscience in teaspoons - just do's and don'ts. But consciousness, you can't give in teaspoons. You need to work with them. Unless you have that much patience, think twice before bringing children to planet earth. Some people tell me, 'But Swamiji, children are not in our hands. God gives us.' Just imagine! Only when you shed responsibility, you will talk these nonsensical things.

Some people tell me, 'It is very difficult Swamiji. If you have one kid, it is ok. You tell us all these things, but it is very difficult to manage them, very difficult to patiently give them intelligence. Naturally, we have to create guilt and give them rules.' Well, as I said, if you can't take responsibility to have patience and groom them, think twice before you decide to give birth, that's all.

Ask yourself, 'Have I solved my life's problems? Did I find solutions to all my problems?' If yes, then go ahead; bring the next generation to planet earth. Otherwise, wait. There is every chance that the next generation will catch you and ask, 'What are you doing? Why did you bring me here?' Already, kids have come to the level of remarking, 'She herself is not happy. Why should I follow her?' So think before you decide.

PSYCHOLOGICAL I LLNESS DUE TO GUILT

Guilt is the sure killer of intelligence. According to me, guilt is the worst killer of intelligence. It will never let you move in your life.

Once one of our devotees had a tumor at the end of her spinal cord, near the root chakra. For twenty years she suffered. She came to me complaining, 'Please help me, heal me. I am suffering with this tumor for so many years. After undergoing surgery, it has reappeared.'

I started talking to her slowly to trace the origin of the problem. I asked her a few questions at the end of which she finally opened up and started weeping. I asked her, 'Do you have any guilt related to your sex energy?' She slowly opened up and started weeping. She said she was physically abused when she was very young. One of her close relatives abused her for many years. That guilt stayed with her. She said, 'I started hating that part of my body. I started feeling, 'that part of the body should not exist in me.' I felt, that part of my body was not my being. My hatred towards that person turned towards my own body.'

Her hatred was so deep. I continued speaking to her. Slowly, she opened up more and more to me. When she brought the guilt out, I started talking to her. She came out of the guilt. She was psychologically healed. I explained to her how this is a usual thing that happens.

Now researchers say one in four are getting sexually abused, especially in America. I read a report just the other day - one in four! Of course, kids don't open up. Kids don't tell you these things. Anyhow, she was psychologically healed when I explained to her what was happening. You will be surprised, in just ten days, the tumor simply disappeared!

I gave her a small meditation technique to meditate on that area. I told her, 'Express your anger towards that man. Weep, shout, cry, hit. Close the doors, take a pillow, imagine that it is him, and weep, cry, shout and hit. After that sit silently, and feel, that part of your body is also your own body. Feel love towards that part of the body.'

You will be surprised… in just ten days, the tumor disappeared! It never came back. It might be difficult to believe, but it is the truth.

Most of our ailments are due to psychological disturbances for which guilt is the main cause. Most of the time, your energy gets blocked because of your guilt. You have psychological illness because of your guilt. If you look deep, wherever you have fear, wherever you are not able to move, wherever you are not able to take decisions, there will be some guilt lurking.

THREE KINDS OF GUILT

There are three kinds of guilt that take root in you:

• 1. Guilt created by your immediate family
• 2. Guilt created by social laws
• 3. Guilt created by yourself

These are the three major kinds of guilt that kill your intelligence.

The mental layer which is related to thoughts is specifically associated with the feeling of guilt. Guilt is nothing but your past decisions and actions being reviewed with your updated intelligence. For example, when you were in school, you might have said a few mean things to one of your friends which caused a relationship to break. Now, so many years later, with the kind of intelligence that you have presently, is it right to review that incident and feel guilty? No! At that time you had only that much intelligence and so you behaved in that fashion. Now, you have updated intelligence. But you can't review the past like that with your present intelligence.

Before the age of seven, guilt is created by your immediate family. Rules are imposed by the family because they cannot logically answer and make you understand issues. This leads to guilt. The guilt about sex is created most definitely by the immediate family. That is the first guilt. The guilt based on greed is always the first guilt that is created by the immediate family.

From seven to fourteen, society creates guilt in you through its rules. The guilt based on fear is created by social laws.

The third guilt is the worst - that which you create for yourself. When you internalize the guilt based upon greed and fear, you create new types of guilt for yourself. If you analyze the situation, whenever you are stuck, these three kinds of guilt will be there in you.

THE USEFUL GUILT

There is a certain guilt that is useful for you: a guilt, which if pursued intelligently, can cause you to move forward in life. It is like this: when you see that you have the potential to do something, when you feel that you have so much potential which you are not using at all, then, if you are intelligent, guilt will happen in you! This guilt can spur you on to take steps to implement what needs to be done for you to reach your potential level.

Sometimes we see the state of things around us and we know in one corner of our mind that we can very well help turn the situation around. But either due to laziness or due to the fear of confrontation, or due to the fear of taking responsibility, we just keep quiet and watch. This type of situation can cause deep guilt in us. This guilt is significant. It can be called 'high level guilt'. If we take steps to correct the situation by helping, then the guilt will disappear and we will also move forward.

This type of guilt has the ability to immerse you in terrible misery. Because of that, it also has the property to drive you to do what needs to be done! Because of its very nature, you cannot harbour this guilt for long. You have to get over it. And the way to get over it is by doing what needs to be done. Once it is done, the guilt also disappears. As long as you harbour this guilt without taking steps, you will remain in misery. That is the simple logic of this guilt.

Another manifestation of this guilt happens when you can feel your ego surfacing in certain situations and you are unable to help it. When you can smell your ego but you are unable to control it, this guilt arises in you. This guilt is also good, since it is a sign of your deep awareness of your own ego. It facilitates you to sincerely work towards eliminating that ego.

JUMPING BETWEEN THE PAST AND FUTURE

Guilt itself is a pull and push between the past and future. When you think of past incidents with updated intelligence you feel guilty. Similarly, with guilt, you anticipate the future, and destroy the future also. Either way, you miss the beauty of the present moment because of guilt.

The other day one of my close disciples was asking, 'Master, you are so casual, so innocent, so playful. But when it comes to teaching us, any word that you utter, simply becomes true! How can so much intelligence and intuition happen continuously?' He asked out of pure awe...!

I had a class that day. Before coming to the class, I was playing chess with one of our devotee's daughter. We had not finished the game, so I told her I would come back after the class and play. It was then that this disciple asked me, 'How you can be so playful, so joyful on one side, and on the other side, your words are so clearly becoming reality!'

One thing you should understand: you are not able to experience this intuition because you are not able to fall into the present moment. You are always pulled by the past or future. Either you work and worry about the past, or you work and worry about the future. Something or the other is continuously going on in you.

Time is like a shaft. Visualize this one thing and understand: time is like a shaft. You are pulled to either this side of the shaft or that side of the shaft. But eternity penetrates time only in the present moment, at the center.

Because of your pull and push between past and future, you never feel relaxed. A deep craving exists all the time, either to achieve something in the outer world or inner world. Please understand that the craving to achieve something in the inner world is also craving for the future. Your craving for enlightenment is also a worry about the future. When you leave the past and future to be in the present, you will see that you relax from this craving.

ACCEPTANCE – THE BEAUTIFUL WAY OUT

Acceptance is a wonderful tool to fall into the present moment, to relieve yourself of the pull and push of the past and future. The first thing is to accept all the happenings of the outer world and accept all the happenings of the inner world. Whatever problems you have in the outer world and whatever problems you have in the inner world, just accept them in their entirety. Summarise all that you experience and label as problems and accept them.

Just try this small experiment:

Just relax for three days with complete acceptance. If you relax for three days without the pull and push in the inner and outer worlds are you going to lose all your wealth? Surely not! So there is no problem. In three days you are not going to lose anything. Why don't you give it a try? Just for three days, sincerely, utterly, accept everything in your life one hundred percent!

If you are not able to accept one hundred percent then accept that you are not able to accept one hundred percent. Even the acceptance of 'I am not able to accept myself in the inner world and outer world,' will make you drop from the pull and push between past and future. The moment you understand, 'I am unable to free myself from the pull and push. I am not able to accept my reality,' that very understanding will start doing its job.

The moment you accept something, you will simply fall into the present moment. The moment you fall into the present moment, the time shaft will become a servant for you. As long as you are below the time shaft, it will rule you. You will be pulled or pushed by the time shaft. The moment your consciousness is raised to the present moment, you will see that you are penetrating the time shaft.

When you penetrate the time shaft, the future is also clearly known to you. The past is also clearly known to you. The tremendous realization comes to you that the time shaft is only your projection! Try this experiment just for three days. If you can fall into the present moment, relaxing from the outer world and inner world things, in three days you will have a glimpse. 'What is life? What does it mean to live in the present moment? If this happens to you, you will experience such ecstasy, such a different space, such a different life that you have never experienced before.

Just for three days, don't try to alter anybody in the outer world. You have lived based on your philosophy for the last 30 years.

Give me just one simple three-day trial period. You will see that when you experiment with such great techniques, they work miracles in your being. They start a great alchemy process in your being. If you are not able to be sincere, accept that you are not able to be sincere. Even that sincerity is enough. You will start seeing a different space in you. That different space is what I call nithya (eternity).

Many women face the guilt of killing a life when they go through an abortion. Please understand that when they decided to abort the pregnancy, their intelligence was only at that level. If their intelligence gets updated soon, it is not their mistake.

Once a guy came to me complaining, 'I am suffering. I have 14 children.' I asked him why he chose to have so many children. He replied, 'Why? God gave me!' The problem is, we do all that we want to do in the name of God! We use Him as our 'dustbin'. We do all the possible nonsense and place the responsibility on Him.

So it is also with the guilt related to extramarital affairs. Be very clear that extramarital affairs show disrespect to another being. You have no right to disrespect anyone. Will you let the other person do it too? What is the meaning of the relationship then? Man is centered on muladhara chakra – lust energy center, and woman is centered on the swadhishtana chakra – fear energy center. That is why man gives in to lust easily and woman gives in to fear easily. During the traditional marriage ceremony, in front of the sacred fire, the man promises to the woman, considered to be a representation of God, 'I shall give you security and release you from insecurity.' The woman promises to the man, 'I shall give you love and free you from lust.' Both of them decide to liberate the other from their weaknesses. But what happens once the ceremony is over? You start playing on the weakness of the other person. Knowing the other person's weakness should make you compassionate towards that person. Instead, the man exploits the woman's fear and the woman exploits the man's lust in cunning ways.

A mature person cannot disrespect another person as if they are a commodity. If you see your wife as a commodity, you will continue to play your game with her. If you see your wife as a being, you will realize how much she has contributed in your life. You will never think of extramarital affairs. It is disrespect to your own body and inner space too. People who sell their bodies have no respect for themselves. When you do it, you reduce spirit to matter and that is disrespect, because you are not just matter as you think. You are energy or spirit. Understand: when man faces insecurity, the woman should become a mother. When the woman becomes centered on fear, the man should adopt the role of father.

MANGALATVA - EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IS AUSPICIOUS

Understand that all guilt is foolishness. Why do we feel guilty? Because we feel we have done something wrong. But in truth there is nothing called 'right' or 'wrong.' In Existence, the basic law is mangalatva, such a beautiful word. Mangalatva means 'everything that happens is auspiciousness!'

Good or bad cannot be defined. It cannot be decided with your logic. Your logical ideas of good or bad are limited only to what you know as life and limited to the people directly around you.

But life is not just limited to you and the people who are around you. If you look a little deeply, you will experience that life is beyond your logical comprehension and your logical understanding.

In Sanskrit we have a word 'Shivam'. The word means 'auspiciousness.' You may think that the activity of Shiva is 'destruction' according to Hindu mythology. In the vedic tradition the word Shiva means auspiciousness… causeless auspiciousness, or energy. That is the exact translation of the word 'Shiva'.

Of course, the work of Shiva is destruction, but it is not destruction as we know it. In Sanskrit, there is a beautiful appreciation for the process of destruction. Actually, it is not destroying; it is creating space for new things to happen! That is the work Shiva does. Understand that you can see destruction as destruction or as creating space for new things to happen. If you see destruction from another dimension, it is actually creating space for new things to happen. The destruction energy from the other angle is nothing but the possibility for rejuvenation. It continuously keeps the whole thing alive! That is what Shiva does. His work is continuous rejuvenation.

You see, if you look at things with your logic, with a narrow vision, you can always complain and blame that whatever is happening cannot be called auspicious. If your vision expands, if you start looking at life as a bigger picture, from a bigger perspective, from a greater understanding, you will realize the truth that whatever is happening is auspicious.

The person who feels that the whole of life is auspicious or mangala, is enlightened! He is liberated. He doesn't have fear. He doesn't have difficulties. He doesn't have problems. He doesn't need any help. The very understanding that whatever happens is auspicious is enough for him. He has solved his life.

There are only two kinds of people on the planet earth. One is the spiritual type that feels 'whatever is happening is auspicious and nothing needs to be added to it.' The other is the materialistic type that feels, 'whatever is happening, there is always something lacking or needing some adjustment.'

A small story:

A preacher gave a long and very inspiring talk about charity.

Then he sent his hat around for a collection.

The hat went around to the entire group and came back empty.

The preacher simply took his hat back and said, 'Thank You, God, at least my hat came back.'

Be very clear that you can make anything auspicious. When you are really in tune with the all-pervading auspiciousness, you will understand that whatever is happening is auspicious. The best thing possible is happening every moment. Whereas if you trust your logic, you will always be complaining. If you trust the cosmic Intelligence, the cosmic logic, you will always be relaxing and appreciating.

You can feel the cosmos as either order or chaos. It is your freedom, your choice. You can feel it as being a beautiful order. Just look around. Do you see any traffic light in the cosmos? No! All the planets are moving so beautifully. Digestion is happening in your body so beautifully. That is also part of the cosmic activity, is it not? Are you making an effort for the bread that you eat to get converted to blood? No! It happens in spite of you. Even if you sit and vegetate after every meal, digestion happens, does it not? That is what I mean. On the other hand, you can also say, 'There is so much chaos, so much fighting in every home, so much trouble in every house. The world is in chaos.' You can look at it from this angle or that angle. It is your freedom.

Whatever is happening is auspicious. In all our lives, at least once or twice we must have experienced this. Just look back at the moments when you took a major positive decision in your life. In those moments you would have had such confidence and courage. At some point in time you would have surrendered either out of joy or high energy or the decision that nothing better or nothing greater can happen in your life. You would have thought that whatever is happening is auspicious. On the contrary, when you are in the middle of some low mood it may be difficult to see that what is happening is auspicious. But when you come out of it successfully and review the entire situation, you are more likely to see that everything that happened was auspicious, was a good lesson and opened the door to new, beneficial experiences. If you remember this the next time a low mood strikes you, the depression is less and you recover sooner. You can open yourself to realize this truth of Shiva.

If your inner space is clear, you will be able to see everything as causeless auspiciousness and automatically, you will also work towards auspiciousness. All your fear, all your greed, all your guilt, all these things exist because your energy is taken away by the past memories that are occupying your inner space, just the way high resolution pictures occupy your computer's memory.

So how do we keep from getting caught in the trap of guilt? Respond with your intelligence to any situation. When a situation presents itself in life, instead of deciding based upon what you have learnt that you 'should do' or 'should not do', decide based on your intelligence, with a deep feeling of responsiblity. That is enough.

So, carry this understanding with you in your life. Guilt is baseless. Live out of your understanding of life, not rules. Everything happening in life will then be auspicious. Existence wants you to be your true self every moment - which is eternal and pure bliss - nithya ananda.

MEDITATION

Re-living is relieving. The best way to relieve yourself of guilt is to relive it. Write it all down. Relive and relieve. Do not console yourself as your guilt surfaces, one incident after the other. Sit in a meditative mood. Relive all the wounds that you are carrying. Close your eyes and enter into the guilt. Relive each guilt, one by one. Relieve them by writing them out. Write them out in as detailed a way as you can. Husband and wife or relatives, please sit separately. Start writing.

Has everyone finished writing? If not, there is no problem, take your time and write down everything. There is no need to hurry. Go deep inside and write slowly.

Now let me explain the meditation technique clearly. First, slowly, very slowly and consciously, feel that your head is being pressed inside your heart. Then clearly visualize that your head has gone into your heart region. Visualize that you are seeing through the heart. You are also breathing through the heart. You are relating with the entire world through the heart. The head is not there. There is just empty space above the neck. Just trust that this is true. Until all of you lose your head, you have to go on with the meditation.

First, you will be in the sitting posture where you will lose the head. Then, you will know how to breathe without the head, how to see without the head, how to smell without the head, etc. These are all very simple actions. Next, you should learn how to move your hands without the head, how to move your body without your head! Finally you will end up with a peak movement, maybe running or dancing. All your movements will be done without the idea or without the remembrance of the head.

Now, we will start with the meditation.

Sit down, close your eyes and tie your eye bands. You will need a little space for movement, so sit a little apart from each other.

Take slow and deep breaths, just for a few minutes. Along with it, feel that your head is being pressed into your heart, into the chest region. Become totally headless.You have no head now. You are headless.

Feel that you are breathing from the heart. Feel that you are seeing through the heart. Feel that you smell through the heart. Feel very clearly that you are breathing through the heart. Listen to everything around you through the heart. Listen to this music that is being played through the heart, not through the head. Listen through the heart, see through the heart, feel through the heart.

Stand up. Have the consciousness from the heart, and let your movements be as slow as possible. Remember that you are moving from the heart. Your centre is from the heart, not from the head. Again and again, forget the head. Move from the heart. Move as slowly as possible, but from the heart. Remember, you are a headless being. Move only from the heart… you are a headless being moving.

Stand in one place, there is no need to walk. Now, increase the speed slowly, very slowly. Remember to move from the heart, not from the head. Forget your head. You are a headless being moving. (A few minutes pass). Stop! Sit down where you are. Just be, without the head. Sit only with your heart. Relax.

(A few minutes pass)

Slowly, very slowly, you may open your eyes.

You may take a break. Do not talk to each other. Maintain silence so that the process may be undisturbed.

Thank you.