Follow Me IN! Follow Me IN! Causal Body
DEPRESSION, DEEP SLEEP AND DEATH
As I said earlier, your mind is like a re-chargeable battery. It is like a battery getting discharged. It will be simply removed and put inside the charger for recharging. But the battery is not ready to wait until it gets fully recharged. It wants to again jump and play inside the toy. Understand that when you don't allow the recharging to happen, when you resist the recharging process, you create depression.
If you don't resist but allow the process to happen for a few moments, then depression will drop you. You will see that once the batteries are recharged, they will be simply bubbling. You will have the total energy to experience the ultimate excitement.
The time for recharging differs for each person. But once you know the knack of how to cooperate with the recharging process, then the time will be reduced and the quality will also improve. So it is the knack of cooperating, the method of cooperating with the darkness that you need to learn.
You see, this is the darkness, the ultimate darkness.
If you allow yourself to be recharged for a few minutes, you will come out of the depression. If you allow yourself to be recharged, if you cooperate with this darkness, you will come out of sleep also. If you work totally on the darkness, you can come out of death itself, because all these three are the expressions of the same thing: that is darkness.
Understand that depression, deep sleep and death are all the outcome of the same darkness layer. If you know how to work with the darkness in ordinary life, the depression will disappear.
Also, the third thing, that is the fear of death, will completely disappear from your system. When this happens, you will not fall into coma before you die. You will die consciously. As of now, 99 % of us die only after falling into a coma. This is the worst kind of death you can have… falling into coma and dying.
Don't think that coma means 'no pain'. The whole death process will start with pain. You will have pain. From the outside you won't feel the pain, but inside, it will be excruciating. When the pain becomes too much, you have a built-in mechanism of a pain killer. To make you forget the pain, coma is the built-in painkiller system.
Whenever your body needs rest but your mind is continuing in an excited and restless mood, your body cannot rest. Unless the mind itself is pulled inside the causal layer, the darkness layer, your body cannot rest. Unless your mind is black, your body will not become black. You will not allow your body to be black. So your whole body and mind will be pulled and inserted into the black hole. If you resist that moment and think, 'Oh, I have depression,' you create depression by thinking you have depression. If you don't resist that moment, you will simply go inside and come out with a fully regenerated feeling. So it will be more like a complete rest rather than depression.
INTEGRATION VS SCHIZOPHRENIA
The causal layer is also called the kāraṇa śarīra in Sanskrit. It is the layer which we are stuck in when we want to do something but we end up saying, 'I know it is right, but I am struggling. I know but…'
If you are caught in this, you are dead... over! You will neither achieve this nor that. Nothing can be done by you. You will be stuck with this one idea for many births. This is what we call 'kāraṇa śarīra' - giving reasons.
If you feel, 'I know what you are talking is right but I am not able to do it,' it means that you are caught in the kāraṇa śarīra. You will never be able to get out of this layer unless you take a strong step and put your foot down to the whole nonsense. If you are caught in this layer, be very clear – nobody can save you. Nobody can save you. Do not be caught in the causal layer. That is what I call evil. When you are caught in the causal layer, you are like different fragments living inside one body. You are fragmented.
Anything fragmented is hell. Only something that is integrated is effective. You are either integrated or just schizophrenic. In my own life, I can say how integration, integrated devotion, was responsible for everything that happened. Integrated devotion is the real devotion. Schizophrenic devotion is not devotion at all. If you say, 'I know it is right but I am not able to get there…' the whole thing is over!
INTEGRATED DEVOTION – FROM MY OWN LIFE
The reason for my first deep spiritual experience is that I never had that schizophrenic attitude in my inner space. One of my great inspirations was Annamalai Swamigal. I was so inspired and impressed by all the masters and mystics I was associated with in my young age. Also, the inner space was so pure at that young age, and there were no other heroes in my space except these masters. The masters were my heroes and in every step, I used to think, 'How will they behave? Let me behave like that. What and how will they act? Let me act like that.'
I used to go for a circumambulation of the sacred Arunachala hill very often. The circumambulation is totally 16 kilometers. I used to go late at night. When I had a little fear, I used to ask myself, 'How will Annamalai Swamigal behave? He won't bother about fear. Then let me also be like that!' and I would continue the circumambulation without fear!
Let me tell you about one incident:
One day, maybe around the time I had my first experience, it was raining heavily. I was doing the circumambulation. There was heavy rain, thunder and lightning. Immediately I thought, 'How will Annamalai Swamigal behave? He won't bother about it. He would just continue to walk. Let me also act in the same way.' I continued to walk.
As I walked on, I was passing through the common crematorium where the people in that place were cremated. In Bharat, both cremation and burial are done in the same place. I was walking in that place because when you go round the hill the path goes through that crematorium also. It is the town's cremation ground.
Suddenly I saw a dog biting something and eating. When I went near, the dog started barking at me. At first, when fear arose, I thought, 'How will Annamalai Swami behave? He won't bother. Let me just move on then.' I started moving. Anyhow, when I started moving, the dog got scared and ran away.
When I went closer, I saw that what the dog was biting was a dead body which had not been completely buried and had come out in the rain and was lying on the road. Just imagine a twelve-thirteen-year old boy at midnight, seeing a dead body without its head, because the head was in the dog's mouth!
The moment the fear started, it did not even reach my being completely; even before that, even before the fear stroke could happen completely, the awareness was so intense and I thought, 'How will Annamalai Swami respond now? He would just walk around and go on. So let me just walk around and go on.' I went on… that's all.
I just took a detour and walked on. I did not even turn back and look. I just walked. The fear stroke did not even touch my whole body. The fear stroke, which was like a pebble, which was about to start, did not even open up. It did not even reach my body. The heat or the shivering or the shaking was not even there in the body. It had just died.
Just the decision, 'If Annamalai Swamigal does, I will do,' did the whole thing… over!' When any thought came up from inside, I would think, 'How will Annamalai Swami respond to this thought? How would he respond?' If I get the response, 'He will not have this thought,' I would just say to myself, 'Then forget about it. It's not mine.' Over!
See, the person who inspires you or impresses you becomes the hero of your inner space, especially if you are still young. These great masters impressed me so much. In every situation, internally I would calculate, 'How would these great masters have behaved?' and whatever came to my mind, I would do the same.
For example, if there were some sweets, my brothers would jump, 'Hey, I want this much as my share!' I would simply think, 'How would Annamalai Swami react in such a situation? He won't bother. He would just give away such things.' I would also then just keep away from the whole thing.
Clearly, the entire inner space was so deeply conscious and ready for the spiritual experience. That is why, just a small push, just a small inspiration from Annamalai Swamigal was able to put me into the first spiritual experience. This is what I call 'Living Enlightenment!'
LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT
When you live the master's body language, you live enlightenment. Whenever any thought came into my body or into my inner space, the first thing I would think would be, 'How would he behave?'
It could be anything… related to clothes or food or anything… If I felt a little lazy to meditate or to walk, I would think, 'How would Annamalai Swamigal be in this situation? How would he handle this situation?' Naturally, he would not bother about the laziness. He would just get up and meditate, that's all. So I used to do just that. He became the scale for everything. All the great masters became the scale for me for everything that I did from morning till night. They became my life center.
One day, I asked Annamalai Swamigal about a dream that I had, and I also asked him what he saw in his dreams. He replied, 'I don't have dreams!' I was shocked. I asked him, 'You don't have dreams at all?
Then how could I have dreams?' That night I clearly remember that when I was having a dream, I said to myself in my dream, 'I cannot have dreams because Annamalai
Discourse 'Living Enlightenment', Los Angeles, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Poornima 2007
Swamigal does not have dreams.' You will be surprised… The dream just disappeared!
The inner space was so thorough, so innocent, and so direct, that it just happened. Even if I felt cold or very warm, I would ask myself, 'How would Annamalai Swamigal feel, in such a situation? He won't bother. Then I too won't bother. There were no further questions or arguments inside.
In your life also, to get out of the kāraṇa śarīra, this is the most direct and powerful technique. In any situation, think 'How would the master respond? How would the master face this situation?' You will see that a new door opens out of nowhere! This is what I call 'Living Enlightenment'.
You don't need anything else. This one thing is enough. Even if you are sitting, if thoughts come up, think to yourself, 'If the master were sitting here, what would be coming up? Naturally silence. Then why am I thinking? Silence!' Over! Nothing else is needed. If your mind steps in and says, 'No, no! I know it's true. I know it, but it is too much.' Then think, 'If master's mind says this, how would He respond to it?' He would have just finished the mind off at that moment! That's all, nothing else.
Take this one message with you and let this message become the very life in you - the message of Living Enlightenment. Actually, this is what I call 'relationship with master' as well. Relationship with the master is not just doing some puja or offering some flowers to Him or worshipping Him once in a while.
Feeling connected to master means just living Him. When you live the master, you feel connected to Him. Only then you are expanding also. Only then something is happening to you. Otherwise, you are just a schizophrenic person. You will have ten different faces. Sometimes you will behave nicely. Sometimes you will behave rudely. Sometimes you will be with lust. Sometimes you will be in a worshipping mood.
Just integrate yourself. No kāraṇa or reason should be told. Just allow the whole body and mind to imbibe the energy, spirit and inspiration of the master. It should go so deep into your inner space that when dreams start coming in, you should say, 'Would master have dreams? No. Then relax.' It should go so deep into your inner space! And it is perfectly possible also. When