7. Questions and Answers
(Questions to do with TPS have been grouped together for convenience)
Q: Sometimes, what we see in our dreams come out to be true the following day. Is it because of 0 TPS?
A: No, it is not because of 0 TPS. In the dream, you pass through the vignanamaya kosha to anandamaya, that is, from the 4 th to the 5 th layer. The space between the 4 th and the 5 th layer is where you fall asleep - deep sleep. When you pass through, you pick up one or two rare truths from vignanamaya kosha. Vignanamaya kosha is where you dream. You pick up one or two things from here. That is all. It has nothing to do with 0 TPS. What happens during the waking state is 0 TPS. If you see your future in the waking state, it is 0 TPS. In the dream state, it is not 0 TPS. It is just an accident.
Q: You said that the TPS is reduced by sitting in the presence of an enlightened Master. You are here now. We are able to sit quietly with reduced TPS. But apart from this, is there any other way to reduce TPS in day to day life?
A: Nithya Dhyaan is a meditation technique that will create the Master's presence for you. That is the meditation I prescribe to bring your TPS down. It is an everyday meditation technique. All our ashramites do it everyday in the ashram as the first thing in the morning.
Q: There have been many times during the past two years, when I have thought that I have experienced the near 0 TPS expansiveness – bliss or spaciousness. But the mind, the identity, always comes back. How does one become fully established in the 0 TPS state without returning to the mind or ego or identity?
A: Getting established is a thing achieved by practice / sadhana.
Q: Do artists have high TPS or low TPS?
A: They have low TPS; maybe 20 or 40 TPS.
Q: I understand that I can have 0 TPS only in your presence, or when I get enlightened. Am I right?
A: In the Master"s presence, 0 TPS will start happening. When you get enlightened, it will still be there. I can give you a glimpse of 0 TPS. If you choose to stay there, you will get enlightened. When you become enlightened, you will stay in the same state forever.
Q: Is 0 TPS, a state we always need to stay in? If yes, then how does one do the day to day activity, job etc.
A: In the real 0 TPS state, you will be the most productive! That is the truth. You will be highly productive because you are not wasting energy in unnecessary jumping between past and future. Your decisions will be very sharp. 0 TPS is the high energy zone; you will never become mentally fatigued. You will never say, "I am done." You will be so joyful. You will become more productive in whatever you are doing.
Productivity is never disturbed by the 0 TPS state. To tell you the truth, you guys do not spend time on showing productivity. You spend time only on selling yourself. What do I mean by "selling yourself"? You sit and spend all your time on project plans, deadlines, projections and fooling the bosses. When you are in the 0 TPS state, you will excel just out of your "quality", not out of your "marketing ability". When you excel out of "quality", you will feel so fulfilled. Dharma or righteousness always gives fulfillment. The person who can sell himself can get into politics or a high posting in an organization, but he will never have fulfillment. The person who is dharmic, is the one who will be productive and fulfilled. He will attain levels out of his own quality, not out of his marketing. Excelling without selling yourself always gives fulfillment. Put your energy more on being; you will see that you become more productive. Apart from just becoming more productive, you will feel deeply fulfilled in your personal life. You will start living a beautiful life. A real 0 TPS person will be dharmic and productive.
Q: If I meditate with another person who also meditates regularly, both of us get to a higher state. If I meditate with a restless person, will my TPS become higher?
A: Group meditation will always cause low TPS. And especially in our satsangs… I have given a promise that wherever our people gather to meditate, I will be there. If people gather and dance, I will be dancing in their midst, in spirit. When they gather to talk about my teachings, I will be there. So group meditation will always bring down your TPS.
Q: If every teacher and student both become changed through interactions, how is it that the TPS is not increased for an enlightened Master?
A: This is a nice question! Understand: when an enlightened Master or rishi says, 'Let both of us grow together," it does not really mean, "I am going to grow by you." It just shows their humbleness, their openness. It does not mean: I am going to learn from you. It just shows the humbleness. So, just be relaxed. You see: when I do namaskar to you, I am not coming down to your level. Instead I am bringing you up to my level! Understand this clearly every time you see me doing namaskar.
One day, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was doing Kali puja to Sharada Devi whom he later married. The puja was the same that he generally performed to the Goddess Kali. Sharada Devi was a young girl at that time, and was living just like any other girl of her age. She had not yet attained enlightenment.
One of the disciples asked her, 'Mother, Gurudeva did puja to you. Don't you think that he has come down one step by doing so?'
Sharadha Devi's reply to this question made people become aware of the level of her maturity and understanding, and why Ramakrishna did puja to her.
She replied, 'He did not come down one step, but instead, he helped me step up by one plane in spirituality. From this moment onwards, my responsibilities have increased.'
If someone accords you a similar respect, what will you do? You will not stand on your feet. You will start flying in the air!
Once in Bharat, when I was entering the meditation hall with my palms joined in namaskar, an elderly man was standing there, and instead of doing namaskar, he simply blessed me! The person who was standing next to him asked him, "Why are you blessing, when Swamiji is doing namaskar?" He said, "After all he is a young person, younger than me; I can bless him." I told him, "When I do namaskar, I do not come down to your level. Instead, I bring you up to my level." When Masters say that, they show their humbleness, their openness and respect for you. If I have to learn from you, you will reproduce yourself on me! That can never happen, don"t worry!
Q: People treat you as God, and people worship you as God. How do you feel Master?
A: Firstly, I do not have a mind to feel anything! In the way you enjoy seeing my form, I also enjoy seeing my own form. Now, I am sitting on the throne. I can get down any time from this throne, as and when I feel like, is it not? Similarly, I may also go out of his body any time I feel like, and then come back to it!
Look at this handkerchief in my hand. There is a small thread hanging from one of the sides. Although the thread is a part of the handkerchief, it cannot be the handkerchief itself. The Master"s body is like the thread whereas he himself is the all-pervading energy. Once a person becomes enlightened, the body is only the thread.
Understand: the power of the Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is what drives the body of the six foot THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. What does Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM mean? The true state of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - this is like the whole handkerchief. The thread which hangs from the kerchief is the six-foot body of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. The decisions of the Cosmic THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM control this six-foot body.
As soon as enlightenment happens, there is no separate thought, action or decision of one"s own. The annamaya kosha is transformed completely during enlightenment. It becomes completely blissful like the anandamaya kosha! Ramakrishna says, "For the modern day man, just looking at the Guru"s image itself is a great meditation technique." Just looking at the blissful image of the Guru can lead you to enlightenment.
Q: Your great words are so assuring. I feel connected and in bliss. Does it mean that I am thinking of the past and living in the present?
A: You are living in the present. Bliss can never be felt based on past. Bliss is always to do with the moment.
Q: How can I prepare myself psychologically for enlightenment?
A: Psychologically, preparation has no significance in enlightenment. Enlightenment is actually blasting you every moment. Whether you have one candle in the house or not, it will not make any difference to the whole thing. Your psychological preparation is nothing but like having one candle. It will help only till I blast you! After that it won"t matter whether you had the candle or not. The psychological preparation is not going to make a big difference. Don't bother about it.
Q: Does enlightenment seem far because of my own fear?
A: Yes, your own fear is the only problem. Don't bother. Just relax and sit here. If you relax with trust, everything will be taken care of.
Q: On the same day that ATSP ends, I am visiting relatives in the evening. They will ask many questions. I am sure that I will not feel like answering them. What should I do? How do we keep quiet, even when social pressure is on us to respond?
A: Normally, these kinds of problems are more prominent in the Hindu society! Of course, in the Western world also, it is there mildly these days.
Just don't talk to them that"s all. What is there in it? What are relatives, really? Each one is an individual. "Relatives" is nothing but a badge that you give them. Each one is an individual, traveling the path alone. You need not disrespect anybody, but you are also not answerable to them in such matters. It is your own personal matter. No one but the Master can help you in this matter. When it comes to spiritual life, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa says that anything can be sacrificed. He goes to the extent of saying that even your wife or husband can be sacrificed; even father or mother can be disobeyed.
In the journey of enlightenment, let me tell you one incident that happened in Ramakrishna's life: One of his young and very close disciples called Rakhal or Swami Brahmananda, was married at the age of 14 before meeting Ramakrishna. He had a kid too. There was a custom in Bengal to marry at a very young age. Of course, after meeting Ramakrishna, he felt that his parents had made a big mistake by getting him married at the age of 14. He felt very bad that he could not tread the path of sannyas.
He went to Ramakrishna and said, 'I want to get initiated into sannyas very badly. My wife is not allowing me to. She is forcing me to live the worldly life. There is constant argument and grief happening. Somehow, I am not able to digest the whole thing.
Ramakrishna said, 'Go and pray to Mother Kali.' The man prayed. There is a small ritual of of ering beetal leaves and beetal nuts to Mother Kali and then throwing it into the sacred Ganges river. The man did this ritual.
Eight days after that, the wife died! Please do not think anything negative about this story at this point. Let me continue…
When the disciple came and told this to Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna says, 'You are born for sannyas. She came just to finish some of her karma. Her karma is over, so she has left the body. I did not kill her.' He did not kill her. You have to understand this very deeply. You can very easily think that Ramakrishna used some supernatural powers and planned her death. Just understand: things happened according to the laws of Existence.
Ramakrishna finally told the man, 'You take sannyas,' and he initiated him into sannyas. One more very surprising thing: after sometime the son also died! The son probably died after 10 to 20 years, but the wife died just 8 days after the ritual!
Q: When I do a meditation, I start feeling different within me. I feel anxious and afraid.
Don"t bother. It is just an initial level feeling. It will go away. When you start meditating, you will feel yourself dissolving. You will feel as though your identity is dissolving. So, you start to feel afraid. Just allow the dissolving to happen. That is the whole idea. The very idea of meditation is to lose your solid identity and merge with the Whole.
Q: Are you the 'Mother Kali' avatar?
A: Don"t bother about whether I am an avatar or not. You have to realize that you are an avatar! That is my mission. My mission is not to prove my divinity. My mission is to prove your divinity.
Q: Is there a correspondence between chakras and koshas?
A: No, there is no correspondence. Let us keep the discussion on koshas, only.
Q: If, to be in the present implies 'not thinking', then how could a scientist or wise man take decisions and still live in the present moment?
A: Whatever they discovered, they did in the present moment, without any thought. It was a sudden revelation. The revelation itself happened in one moment, in the present moment, not based on the past or the future. The rest is logical analysis.
Q: Sometimes we have a bad dream. Does that mean that the vignanamaya kosha is corrupted?
A: Yes.
Q: Is eternity what is being in the present moment?
A: Yes, if you are in the present moment, you are in eternity.
Q: How do you stay in the eternal present, and deal with the future or past for working sake, as you do?
A: I do not work with past and future. When you actually establish yourself in the present moment, you can just stop and see the past and future as you wish to. Time shaft is like a video game. You can rewind or fast-forward!
Q: If some older people are going to speak of good and bad experience again and again, and not accept the present, how will it affect the younger generation on which they force it down?
A: I think you are talking about in-laws or grand parents! Somehow, when the present is not enjoyable for them, they are caught in the past, in the good and bad of the past. So they will catch you, and start telling you stories: in 1963, when I was in the army….etc! And sometimes, they will tell the same stories everyday. They forget that children have a good memory! Not only that,sometimes people listen to them because they will get candy from them at the end of it. What do I mean by candy? Money… wealth! With me, just because I don"t shout at them, they tell me, also these stories! Even if I tell them that I know the story, they will insist on finishing the same old stories again and again. They will not even be creative and tell new stories.
You have to know how to handle it. They will not handle it. Nothing much can be done about it. Just be ready to sacrifice the candy that you get in the end, that"s all. As long as you want the candy, you have vested interest in their stories, so you have to suffer. If you are ready to renounce the candy, you will not even ask this question. You will simply handle it yourself, and be relieved. In most cases in Bharat, the older people will hold property. Unless you listen to their stories and keep them in a good mood, you can"t get the property at the end of the game! So until they die, you will be putting up with them. Sometimes, relatives even pray for their death! If you are a girl, when you get married and leave, you will get a portion of the wealth, like jewels etc. If you are a boy, you have to please them in some way or the other all the time, so that you are assured of your share of the property.
Q: Why do we bounce back into the mental and physical layers soon? Why can't we go deeper and experience bliss completely?
A: I should ask you this question! When you can have a glimpse, why can't you stay there? It is because you want to come back, that you are coming back! Maybe your samskaras, that is, your engraved memories, are bringing you back again and again.
Exercises:
- 1. Give the meaning of Atma spurana.
- 2. What is Upanishad?
- 3. State the relationship between TPS and Koshas
- 4. What do you understand by the word 'The alchemy'?
- 5. Brief on 'Let go of that identity; have a real vacation!'
Unit II