Q5. Dear Swamiji, why is there so much violence in the name of spirituality?🔗

Fights and violence are not because of spirituality, they are because of religion. Whenever spirituality is alive, there are no fights. Whenever outer rituals are alive instead, the problem starts. If you give importance to Gita, there is no problem, but when you give importance to Krishna, the problem happens. But to understand Gita you need to give a little importance to Krishna. To start with Krishna is perfectly alright, but if you end with Krishna surely there's some problem. It's beautiful, good to be born in the church, but not to die there. You can start with religion, but if you go up, go ahead then there won't be all these fights. Do know the meaning for the word 'Ayodhya'? It comes from 'Ayodhi' - where there is no yuddha, where there no war happens. The very word 'Ayodhi' means where no war happens. The concept with which Rama created 'Ayodhi', the concept with which Rama named 'Ayodhi', I think he must have visualized a peaceful, joyful heaven. That is the reason why he would have named that place as 'Ayodhi', beyond wars, beyond fights, beyond disturbances. We catch Rama, but drop his vision. There starts the problem. We caught him, but not the vision. When we catch Christ instead of the Bible, then the problem starts.

There is a small story, a beautiful story - one of Rama's disciples was sitting on the bank of river in Benares, on the banks of Ganga. He was just sitting and his routine was every day in the morning he used to sing, chant the Tulsi Ramayana. He had one copy of Tulsi Ramanaya. He used to just recite the Tulsi Ramayana, to attain the Gods. The whole day he used to be there and recite Rama's name and he used to enjoy the 'Ram Nam'. He used to be just in ecstasy, he was very popular in that whole area. People used to go to him for blessings and he was leading an enlightened, joyful, ecstatic life.

One day one beggar went to him, asked, "Sir, I have not taken food for the last three days, please give me something to eat." As an enlightened person, he was filled with compassion, he could not tolerate that somebody has not taken food for three days. He felt the suffering. Ordinary people can feel only sympathy. With masters, something happens which is called empathy. They feel another's emotion in totality. And their response raises the other, lifts them to a higher plane. With ordinary people, when you share another's suffering you too get trapped in their pain. You 'fall in love' with their problems, you too fall to their level and just become part of their suffering. But with masters they just raise them in love, raise them with their love.

The sage could not tolerate that somebody is living without food, he is hungry. He had with him nothing except a copy of the Tulsi Ramayana. So he gave the beggar the book, saying, "Please take this book to the market, tell them that this book belongs to me, that this book was given by me. You will see that people will purchase this book paying a lot of money. With that money buy yourself something to eat." The book which he was almost worshipping everyday, which he never even used to open in front of the others! It was like a being for him. But he just gave the book and told, take this book, sell it in the market, you will get some money, eat with that money.

When the beggar left, the sage prayed to Rama, "Oh Rama! I have given away your words to keep your words. I have given away your words to keep your words."

What is the philosophy of Rama? Nothing but giving. The ultimate sacrifice, 'Thyaga'.

'I have given away your words just to keep your words.' So when you give away the words, just to keep their words, no fight happens. Naturally the unity, the experience of bliss, experience of peace, experience of harmony happens, when you hold on to the words instead of keeping it. Instead of keeping them in your life, if you keep them in books then the problem starts. So if you are ready to give away your words, to keep the words, no problem can arise, no problem can exist. This is the only solution, the one and only solution. Put your energy more on understanding and developing your life than giving importance to the forms and the outer rituals.

Q6. Dear Swamiji, could you throw some light on the chakras and mantras?

You have asked about two things – the Chakras and the Mantras.

Let me first explain about the Chakras. Chakras are the subtle energy centers which are in your being. Of course, they have no physical existence. By activating them you can relieve a person of disease. These seven energy centers manage all your physical, mental, psychological, emotional and spiritual activities. Your attitudes and activities are controlled and managed by these chakras.

For example, if your stomach is upset, even if you hear some good news you will not be in a mood to relish it, cherish it, and enjoy it. If your stomach is relaxed, if your being is light, even bad news or mistakes you will take in a light sense. You will forgive the other person. These chakras play a major role in your physical, mental, psychological, emotional and spiritual attitudes and activities. When they are disturbed, when they are not at ease with your system the dis-ease happens to you, when they are dis-eased with your being the disease happens to you. If the chakras can be activated by a proper method, by a proper technique, you can be freed from disease. Not only do you come out of the disease, you taste real well-being.

Even if you are not suffering from any disease, we rarely feel a true sense of well-being. What is the scale, how do you measure whether I am in a state of well-being or not? Early in the morning, as soon as you get up from the bed if your steps from the bed to the bathroom, if they are a dance instead of being steps, you are healthy. You are in a state of well-being. The steps from the bed to the bathroom should be more like a dance than like just steps. That is the time to measure whether your being is beautiful, whether you are joyful, whether you are healthy or not. That is the time you just come out of unconsciousness. You just come out of unconsciousness. That is the time to measure, who are you, how are you?

Just watch the animals as they awaken from sleep each morning. You see birds chirping for no reason. The calf leaps at least two or three times around the rope on which it is tied. The cat does a few rounds for no reason. The human being is the only animal who turns over and goes back to sleep! Early in the morning as soon as the alarm goes, the human being is the only animal who turns over and goes back to sleep. The human being is the only animal who has disconnected himself so completely from nature, from existence.

A small story:

Once a middle aged man, for some reason, wanted to get rid of his wife. His wife had a cat and the man thought he would get rid of both. Thinking that he would start with the cat, he caught the cat, took it some ten miles away, dropped it in an unfamiliar place and came back. When he reached his house, he saw the cat already standing there waiting for him.

The next day he took the cat to the other side of the town – 20 miles away. He dropped it, came back and within one hour he saw the cat standing there in front of the house.

By the third day he was really disturbed, annoyed. He took the cat, put it in a gunny bag, tied the gunny bag properly, took the cat and drove left, right, south, west, this way, that way and after two or three hours' drive he reached a place like a forest, a dead end. He said, 'I myself have not gone to this place, so the cat can never find the way back. Let me drop the cat here, this is the best place because I myself don't know that there exists a place like this. So the cat can never find the way. He just dropped the gunny bag and drove back.

On the way back, he rang up his wife, "Dear, is the cat in the house?"

She said, "Yes, the cat is already here."

Then the man asked, "Can you please somehow find out the way back from him? I have lost my way. He will be able to tell me the way.'

The human being is the only animal who has lost connection with nature altogether, who has lost his way.

So if you see your steps early in the morning is more like a dance, you can be sure that you have not lost your way, you are living a life of well-being. Awakening of the chakras not only brings you out of the disease, it gives you a glimpse, a taste of what is well being. Most of us have never touched the state of well being. We have never experienced the state of well-being. Just like a man who is blind from his birth can never understand what he is missing, we too never understand what we are missing. We will never understand how it is to feel a sense of well-being, because we lost it at a very young age. So only when you enter into these chakras you will understand what you were really missing all these days. This is the basic explanation about chakras.

Now about Mantras. Never think words are just words. Be very clear: never think simply words are just words. They are also embodiments of energy. Just take an example, I utter a word 'cow'. Immediately a figure appears in your mind, with four legs, one tail, two horns, two ears and so on. Am I right? Iimmediately, just by the sound, the form is created in your system. You just try to think of that form without the sound, may not be the cow but 'gau', you will use the word in Hindi. Just try to visualize something without creating a sound, without creating a word. You can never do it, never. This visualization is what is called 'Ichcha Shakti'.

You have three energies in your system. Ichcha shakti, Kriya shakti and Gnana shakti. For the other two energies, Iccha shakti is the base metal. From this base metal, gold is created. Iccha shakti is the raw energy, raw material from which Gnana shakti and Kriya shakti are developed. When it is 22 carat gold it is Kriya shakti. When it is 24 carat it is Gnana shakti. When it is 18 carat, just a raw material, it is Ichha shakti. Raw material is Iccha shakti, 22 carat gold is Kriya shakti and 24 carat gold is Gnana shakti. But the raw material is the basic thing. The capacity to visualize, the capacity to imagine is what is raw material. So the visualization capacity and the words are closely associated.

Adding Mantras into raw material is like processing the raw material and purifying it to pure gold. The word mantra can mean two things:

Man-tra: Man means mankind, T*ra* means that which shows the way, so Mantra is that which shows the way to man.

Man-tra: Man also means mind, T*ra* means that which shows the way, so Mantra could also mean that which shows the way out of the mind, which brings you out of the mind.

So the technique to bring the man out of the mind is the Mantra. You can say, the technique which brings the man out of the world, which shows the way to man, that is what is mantra. When the mantras are added to your being continuously, like acid is added to the raw material to cleanse it, it becomes 22 carat gold. If you continue the process, it will ultimately become 24 carat gold. So mantra is a powerful technique to enter into the spiritual zone or enlightenment or the real life.

Even in day-to-day life - what you people call as life – mantras are necessary. It is not necessary that the mantra should be in Sanskrit. You all use English mantras – I must succeed in my office, I must convince that person, I must flourish in my business. Even these words which you continuously repeat unconsciously are mantras. Don't think mantra means 'Om Namah Shivaya', or 'Hari Om Namoh Narayana'. No, these are the ancient mantras. The modern mantras can be even what you think, as soon as you get up in the morning: Today I must talk to that man and get the business, Today I must talk to her and settle things. Whatever you utter can become a mantra. That is the way to attain something. Anything that becomes a reality in your life first appears only in the form of a mantra, then becomes reality. If the mantra is unconscious, the result is also unconscious. If the mantra is conscious, then the result is also conscious. If you do it consciously, you get the conscious results and you will know how to enjoy it. If the mantra is repeated unconsciously, you will not know the purpose and the result. When it is repeated consciously you will be very clear about the purpose and where you want to reach and what will happen. If consciousness is flooded into your mind, into your mantra structure, then the path and the goal both become clear to you. You will reach it safely and beautifully, by dancing and not by walking. If it is unconscious, you are unaware about your path and your goal, so naturally you are just dragged. You are not traveling. If you are conscious only then you are traveling. If you are unconscious, it means you are just being dragged. If you know how to stop the car, how to apply the brake, you are driving the car. If you don't know, the car is driving you.

We are all chanting mantras continuously, whether you are religious or non-religious, spiritual or materialistic. You are chanting the mantra continuously, either consciously or unconsciously, that's all. If you decide to chant the mantra consciously, you will know how to stop the car, and you will be driving the car. If you let the mantra chant you, if you let the unconscious process continue in you and control your actions, the car will be driving you. If you drive the car, you will know where you will go. If the car drives you, you have no idea where you will reach!

Q7. Dear Swamiji, you say we are part of the whole, but I experience myself as a separate individual. Can you explain?

You may think that you are separate from existence, but you are not. Whether you want it or not, whether you accept it or not, whether you understand it or not, whether you believe it or not, you are connected to God. It's like you are God's child. If you have a small baby on your lap, even if he hits out or kicks you, keeps kicking you, he is in still your lap. Just like that, even if you resist, you are in divinity. Whether you float with the current or swim against it, you are connected to the river. You are related to this cosmic mind, the cosmic consciousness. All the minds are very closely related to each other. If you see the circle of cosmic consciousness, only on the periphery are there so many points, but in the center all just gather. If you go towards the center the distance between you and the other point becomes lesser and lesser. If you move out of the center the distance between you and others becomes more and more. If you move towards the center, you come close to your neighbours, to the other. So whether you believe it or not on the mental level, on the being level you are connected with all the beings.

So anything done consciously creates a ripple in the mind. Like if you throw a small stone in the lake, that creates a ripple and that reaches the boundary or the shore of the lake. It spreads like a wave. Just like a wave, if you drop the mantra like a stone in the conscious mind, the ripple is created. It just travels to the shore of the lake. It travels all over the lake and it creates effects. Only thing if the stone is a little big, the wave is bigger, the stone is small the wave is small. So whenever you chant anything, whenever you pray for anybody , it just surely creates an effect on your being and the other beings. It just enters like the stone that is dropped on the lake, its dropped on the mind and it creates ripples and it does create an effect in your system and other systems. In the other system if you drop the stone, what happens in the periphery, that much will happen to the other beings. What happens in the center, that much will happen to your being. So when you pray for others the effect is more on you than on others. Others do get the effect, but you get the result. They are only affected. You get the result itself.