LIFE I S A PSYCHODRAMA🔗

Actually if you drop your conditioning, you will have something called your inner space where you can rest when you wish to. When you are haunted or tortured by conditioning, you can go inside and rest. If you have a resort or an inner space to rest in, you will be able to work much more beautifully. You will be able to play the psychodrama of life much more beautifully.

I always tell people, 'You thinking that you are a disciple and you thinking that I am a Guru is also a psychodrama!' Don't think that only your life is a psychodrama; you thinking of me as a Guru is also psychodrama. Because you want to think that way, you think of me as a Guru and I look like your Guru, that's all. As you want, so I appear. I am just a mirror. The master is just a mirror. The whole thing is just a psychodrama. You are living in a psychodrama. Understanding that the whole thing is a psychodrama and the ability to relax from it only can help you in the nirvanic layer.

In the nirvanic layer, all you need to understand is this: whether it is your profession or your relationships or your spirituality, the whole thing is just a psychodrama! You have an idea about yourself. You have strongly positioned yourself in some spot. You have decided about yourself and set yourself a few clear rules. From that point, you are continuously working and measuring and doing things. But you forget that the base itself is not there. The base which you have created itself is just an illusion. Nirbana in Paali language means Nirvana. The very meaning of that word Nirbana means 'nothing'.

There is nothing in all this! Please be very clear: all your activities are centered on you, what you think is you. For example, you think you are a person named Raman. That is the starting point. From that you start: Raman, Raman's wife, Raman's daughter, Raman's family, Raman's property, Raman's spiritual growth, Raman's physical body, Raman's mental health, Raman's economic status… the whole thing is centered on you, but you don't realize that Raman itself is not there! You are trying to continuously protect yourself, physically, mentally, emotionally, economically, spiritually or socially. But the very being whom you are trying to protect is not there.

THE S TORY OF THE PARAMAHAMSA

This story actually happened to me as a darshan, as a vision, as an experience. It is from this that I created our institution's emblem. If you see our emblem you will see the Paramahamsa bird in it. The Paramahamsa is our emblem. I had a beautiful vision or experience, from which I created the emblem.

Ramakrishna speaks about the great Swans – the Paramahamsas. These great Swans are actually enlightened masters who take a bird body just to go around and see their territory! They are metaphysical birds, seen only through enlightened eyes or by people who are living in the higher consciousness zone. Of course, only if you are enlightened, you will be able to stay in the higher consciousness; that is different!

The Paramahamsa never comes down to planet earth. It just flies high in the sky, enjoying and expressing its freedom; expressing its own bliss. Sometimes it descends in height and flies closer to earth.

The Paramahamsa lays its egg while it is in the air. Within forty percent distance of touching the ground, the egg will hatch. Within sixty percent distance, the small one will emerge and grow wings. Before touching the ground, within ninety percent distance, the small one will just take off and fly back into the air. It will never touch the ground! It will never touch planet earth. These are called the Paramahamsas – the supreme Swans that are untouched by worldly matters, who represent enlightened consciousness since birth.

There is a small story about these great Swans:

The Swan is flying high in the sky. When the reflection of the Swan falls on lakes or the ocean or a river, when the reflection falls on the water, all the fish in the lake start jumping, 'Oh, some new fish has come, some big fish has come!' They all start jumping on the reflection and playing with it. The very sight of the reflection fills them with joy.

Some fish will jump this way, and some fish will jump that way. Some fish will think, 'What a beautiful fish, what a wonderful fish this is,' and they will be jumping this way and that. Some fish will start calling the other fish, 'Hey come quickly, come and see this beautiful fish, this pretty fish!'

Some fish will even put a fence around the reflection and declare, 'Only we can go near this fish!' Some fish who jump towards the reflection will feel that the fish is hugging them.

They will go back and write reminiscences, 'Oh… this fish is so great, so loving, radiating compassion; what amazing love and compassion!'

Some other fish start purchasing neighboring land - real estate, thinking the Swan may come there. Some other fish claim, 'I am the brother of the Swan, I am the son of the Swan, I am the beloved of the Swan.' The whole drama happens!

Some fish which jump a little away from the reflection will feel as if the Swan is kicking them out; as if the reflection is kicking them out. They will go out and say, 'No, no. This fish is arrogant. He is not as loving as these other fish have told me. In books I read that it was very loving and compassionate. I went there and the swan kicked me out. It is not as compassionate as these fish say.'

If the water is calm, the fish see one kind of reflection of the Swan. If the water is turbulent, they see another form of the Swan. When they move with the water, they see yet another form of the Swan. They argue with each other, claiming that what each one sees is the real Swan; all by looking at the reflection! Each different perception of the reflection is held on to by either individual fish or groups of fish. The Swan just keeps flying, and the fish just keep arguing. When they do not see the swan's reflection, the fish have no recollection of the reflection that had filled them with joy just a while ago. Their memories are short and they are back to their eating, mating, fighting and dying!

Suddenly the Swan starts flying over land. The reflection which was appearing on the water suddenly disappears! Immediately all the fish start crying, 'What happened? Our Swan has disappeared! What happened to our Swan?' But they never understand that the Swan never landed on planet earth in the first place to disappear now!

Different types of fish come around the reflection. There are some fish that are very busy - just jumping this way and that way. And when these fish jump this way and that way, the reflection starts moving because of the ripples created by the fish. And these fish will think that the Swan is moving. The fish cannot distinguish between the reflection and the source. They are too excited about the 'big fish' in the water. Some fish feel they are even getting enlightened. They feel that the closer they are to the reflection, the faster they will get enlightened!

Of course, wherever the reflection falls, automatically, ashrams and communities and temples just come up! You don't even have to do anything; they will just come up! If the reflection falls on Malaysia, all the Malaysian fish will gather and a temple will be built! If it falls on Los Angeles, all the Los Angeles fish will gather and the temple will be built! If the reflection falls on Bengaluru, all the Bengaluru fish will gather and a temple will be built! If the reflection falls on some other country or city, all the fish will gather and naturally, an ashram will be built!

Suddenly the Swan starts flying over land. The reflection which appeared on the water suddenly disappears!

Immediately all the fish start crying, 'What happened? Our Swan has disappeared! What happened to our Swan?' Some of the fish start cursing the Swan, 'What is this? Believing this Swan, we built such a beautiful house and raised all the real estate around this building. Now each building will go for five lakhs.' Yet, the Swan flies on blissfully untouched by the drama that is going on with the fish. But they never understand that the Swan never landed on planet earth in the first place, to disappear now!

The whole thing is just a drama! In the same way, in your life too, you have started thinking that you have a soul. Of course, you have a soul, but that soul is entirely different from whatever you understand as your soul. It is just like your misunderstanding of the Swan's reflection. But based on your own understanding, you start protecting yourself and creating a fence around you. You create a house, family, relations, social security and wealth, then decide, 'Oh! I need spiritual growth also.' Then you go to some Guru and start searching for spirituality also.

But you forget that the very Swan has not happened! There is no Swan in what you are seeing. You are just playing with the reflection.

The problem is, the reflection itself is so graceful, so beautiful, that most of the fish have no motivation to look up! The fish are quite happy building walls and fences in the water, with the belief that they possess the Swan.

But there are some intelligent fish… who think… 'No! This does not seem to be a fish. This seems to be something else.'Some intelligent fish will suddenly think this way. These fish are what we call devotees!

There are some other - very few but more - intelligent fish. They will see the reflection and say, 'No, it is not even something else, it is just a reflection of something!' And of something! they will look up…and see the Swan flying! These are the disciples!

Understand? There are many levels of fish. There are fish that will jump this way, towards the reflection and feel that the reflection is hugging them. They will feel that He is very loving, caring and compassionate. They will go back and write reminiscences. This is one level. Or they will make a website for Him, or they will write a book for Him.

There are some fish that will jump that way, away from the reflection and say, 'No, no, that fish kicked me out. It is not loving or compassionate.' This is one group of fish.

Some rare, intelligent fish will look and say, 'No! This is not even a fish like us. It is something else…'

You see, there is a beautiful sloka – verse - in the Bhagavad Gita which says: whoever thinks that the Guru is a better human being, has abused the divine Presence. The Guru is

not a better human being; he is completely disconnected from this very idea of human being! He is a different species altogether!

So only a few intelligent fish get an idea: No! He is not a better fish or a big fish or anything. He is not even the same species which we think we are. The very quality, the very idea is totally different. Those who are fortunate enough to have this click, become devotees! Only they start living around or start practicing very sincerely whatever they caught in the expression of the Swan.

Understand: the people who come and go…these are the fish that claim He is loving and compassionate as well as the fish that jump out and say, 'No, not like that, everything is business…' both the fish are only 'consumers'. The fish that start looking, that start feeling, 'No, this is not a fish, it cannot be just a fish like us…'- that fish is an investor!

Only when you have this doubt: No, this is not just a fish, it is something else, you are ready to look up and see the source. When you look up and see the original fish…the original Swan…you understand the truth! Not only that… Suddenly you will see…you were also never a fish, you were thinking that you were a thinking that you were a fish! Suddenly you will see…'Arrey! I am also a Swan!' ! I am also a Swan

Then, you will just fly and play with the Swan!

Until you see the Swan flying, you do not realize that you too are a Swan. You are a Swan, who for some reason, fell into the water, and forgot you can fly. You are just tumbling this way and that way, struggling to survive, thinking that you are a fish.

This is the truth.

Understand one important thing: whether the fish are jumping and moving the reflection, or they are feeling that the reflection is loving and compassionate and hugging them, or they feel that everything is just business and hating it, or if they look a little deep and find out the reality of the Swan throughout all of these stages, the Swan does not even bother…. He is not even touched. He is neither touched nor bothered! That is the beauty! His reflection falls on the lake for one purpose only: expecting and seeing if maybe a few fish will look up; that's all! Maybe a few fish will look up...

Understand:

In the first level, when you jump and say that he is compassionate, you are a fish, and the reflection is also a fish.

If you jump out and say, 'No, no, it is not as we think; it is all just foolishness,…' again, you are a fish and he is also just one more fish.

In the third level, when you look at the reflection and say, 'No, no, this is not a fish,' then, you are not a fish and He is also not a fish either. He is a reflection and you are also a reflection of the reflection. That is why you are able to feel that it is something else.

Then, in the fourth level, when you look up, He is a Swan and you are also a Swan!

Along with your transformation, you will feel the higher experiences of Him. And by seeing the higher experiences of Him, your further transformation will happen; both are interconnected.

When you see the divinity in an idol, it is the first level. When you see the divinity in a living human being, in the Guru or master, it is the next level, and it is called Guru Bhakti – devotion to the Guru*. You will see that Guru Bhakti* suddenly leads to Atma Bhakti – devotion to the Soul! The Guru just turns the devotion that you have on him towards yourself and says, 'What is inside this system, is inside that system as well. Tat Tvam Asi – You are That!'

The reflection of the Swan happens everywhere in the hope that maybe a few fish will look up. But understand one thing: especially the ones who are the organizers… I always tell them, these rituals, rites, temples, ashrams, everything is for service, for the public. You should remember only one thing: do not forget to see the Swan. Some fish are so do not forget to see the Swan busy collecting pebbles to add to the height of the temple, they forget to look up and see the Swan. One fine morning, the Swan may no longer be there; only empty water will remain. They will be stuck with the memorial they built. The Swan would have disappeared.

All you need to do is look up! Look up look up at the real Swan instead of being caught in its reflection! Just look up and you can simply see that you are also not a fish either; you also have wings and you also can fly just like the Supreme Swan or Paramahamsa. You are Him.

Before the Swan disappears, do not forget to look up and see the Swan. Sometimes, people just play around and miss. They forget to look up and see the Swan, thinking that it is going to be there forever.

So, do not miss…

If you can meditate on this one story, I tell you, you will be liberated this moment! If you can, keep your focus only on this one understanding, just like a Zen koan. Remember: you have never happened as you think you have; whatever you think is you is not you.

The root of you is non-existence – nirbana. Nirbana means nirvana which is 'non-existence'. Just imagine: to protect something which is non-existent, you are torturing yourself so much. The stream is flowing; if the fish is trying to push the stream, or if the fish tries to stop the stream, will the stream even know about it? Whether you try to become enlightened or you take on a stand against enlightenment, God doesn't even know anything about it.

All the fish on seeing the Swan think, 'Let us stop this stream. Let us have a barricade and stop this stream.' If all the fish line up in the stream and try to stop the stream, do you think they will be successful? The stream will not even know that the fish are trying to stop it!

In the same way, you not becoming enlightened, or you not realizing what reality is, your atman doesn't even know. You are not connected to your being even that much. So whatever you think is you is just non-existent.

A small story:

A man who was blind from birth went to the doctor. The doctor said, 'I will operate on your eye. You will have your eye sight back, and then you can walk without your stick.' The blind man said, 'Doctor, I understand that you will operate on me and I will have my eye sight back. But how are you saying that I can walk without my stick?'

Unless the man has his eye sight back, he will not be able understand how he can walk without his stick! Just intellectually, you cannot convince the man that he will be able to walk without his stick!

THE GREAT ENLIGHTENED BEINGS - PARAMAHAMSAS

The great enlightened masters are the Paramahamsas who touch the planet earth from time to time taking a human form, with a mission, from time to time. A Paramahamsa is one whose spiritual awakening leads to enlightenment even before adolescence. Such a being never touches the ground; his spirit soars high well before it is enmeshed in the web of worldly reality. Paramahamsas are rare beings whose innocent wisdom pierces even the most hardened heart and mind.

In such beings, the divine kundalini energy, which is the universal energy that flows through every individual, that is stored in the muladhara chakra (the energy center at the base of the spine)

never moves downwards as it does with normal beings at adolescence.

In all humans, this energy moves downwards, leading to sexual awakening and the desire to fulfill the need for procreation. In the case of the Paramahamsa, the kundalini energy is awakened before puberty, and it moves upwards instead of downwards at the time of spiritual awakening, without causing any desire for sexual pleasure.

The energy within the Paramahamsa stays pure, uncorrupted, and exceptional. Their purpose in life is to communicate to the rest of humanity this truth that has been gifted to them, in the hope that at least some of the others would get a glimpse of this truth for themselves. Each Paramahamsa communicates this message in his own inimitable style. Ramakrishna, forever in divine ecstasy, inspired others through devotion or bhakti. Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi, another great Paramahamsa, communicated his message mainly in silence, through a process of discrimination. There are others who by their touch and at times by a mere glance imparted their wisdom to disciples who were ready to receive the truth. In whichever way they may impart the truth, it is not to be forgotten that they happen on planet earth for only one reason: the hope that at least a few of us will look up and see the look up Truth, and become That.

LOOK INSIDE, WHATEVER YOU THINK IS YOU IS NOT THERE

Understand this one thing: if you really look inside yourself, whatever you thought of as being you will not be there. It will disappear the moment you look inside. Whatever issues are the basis for your suffering, where those issues are rooted, that very root is non-existent. That is why I tell you, your name itself is non-existent!

That is why in Zen they say, meditate on how your face might have been before your birth. Just visualize how your face might have been before your birth. Will you be able visualize? No! If you are 50 years old now, just 50 years ago you were non-existent. Whatever you think as you now, was non-existent 50 years ago, am I right? And 50 years later, you will be again non-existent. Why are you then suffering so much? Why are you torturing yourself just for these few years of drama? The whole thing is just nirbana!

Meditate on this one sutra. Don't bother about what others are thinking about you, because they are bothering about what you are thinking about them! It is just a drama that is happening continuously; you don't have time to stop and look, that's all.

You don't have the time to open your eyes and see. You don't have the time to relax for a few minutes and watch reality because your inner television is never switched off even for two seconds. You don't even know that the television can be switched off or that there can be a few moments when the scenes will not appear, when the screen will be blank.

Here I am trying to tell you, that just because the screen is continuously filled with scenes, don't think what you are seeing is the truth. It can be switched off. You can switch it off, you can relax. It is time, at least for the next half an hour, relax and meditate on the face which you had before your birth.

YOU ARE A HAPPENING, NOT A BEING

One more thing: to understand the whole thing as 'Nothing', you don't need much spiritual practice. All you need is simple knowledge of English - to understand my words.

Listen carefully:

You are not a noun, you are a verb. ou are not a noun, you are a verb You are not a being, you are a happening. ou are not a being, you are a happening.

Understanding that you are not a being is what I call Nirvana. The moment you understand that you are not a being but a happening, tremendous freedom and liberation happens to you. You don't have to protect yourself anymore. You can be so open and free. You don't have to have any guarding mechanism against everyone and everything.

Immediately your mind will say, 'No, I may have physical pain, or somebody may hurt me. If I don't protect myself, I may fall sick.' Please be very clear: I am not asking you to go and jump in the river. No! I am not asking you to allow yourself to be hurt. When I say don't protect yourself, I don't mean: enter into the river Ganga and watch what happens! Your mind is always playing these games. That is the problem. When I say don't protect yourself, immediately your mind will say, 'Oh! He says I have to jump into the Ganga.' No. The second statement is not made by me. It is made by your mind.

You have to understand your mind first. For example, if I tell you, 'There are two doors, and one door is open,' what do you conclude? The second door is closed! But this statement is not made by me. Then, who is it made by? Your mind!

When I say now, 'You are a happening, and you don't have to protect yourself,' there is no need for the second statement from the mind. Just internalize the first statement. Then, as and when situations arise, you will have enough intelligence and you will see that things happen automatically.