The Simple Truth Straightaway!
If you look deeply, neither science, nor mathematics, nor logic, nor history, nor geography - in fact, no other field has so many contradictions as the spiritual field. In all other fields, things are expressed almost in one line or one tune. Facts and figures may vary a little, but the main thread, the core, is one and the same. In science, you don't find much contradiction between one scientist and the other.
In mathematics, you don't find many contradictions. In history, you don't find many contradictions. In no other field do you find such major contradictions as in the spiritual field. In the spiritual field, if you don't have contradictions, that would be something new! There is a beautiful saying that if two sages preach the same thing, if two rishis don't contradict each other, you can be sure one of them is fake!
Why is there so much contradiction? Why are there so many new philosophies in the spiritual field? Everybody asks, especially in Hinduism, why are there so many groups, so many sects, so many devatas (Gods)? This is because, wherever you have freedom, you have variety.
In the Western society, they have plenty of social freedom. It is said that once in three months, they change their car, their house and their wife! All three are changed regularly, once in three months! They have tremendous freedom in the outer world, in the social structure. But they don't have freedom in the inner world. As far as the inner world is concerned, a set of beliefs, a set of faiths is spoon-fed to them. They have to eat that; whether they digest it or vomit it, is their responsibility!
In the Western system, they don't have the freedom of the inner world. That is why, not many groups or sects or cults have been created. Not as many Gods are brought into the market. But in the East, we have tremendous freedom in the inner world. Anybody can enter into the inner life, do some research and publish their report, bring a new philosophy to the world, bring a new God to the earth, bring a new ideology to humanity. As far as society is concerned, as far as the outer world is concerned, we don't have freedom. But in the inner world we have great freedom. This is why we have so many groups, so many cults, so many sects, so many ideologies and so many masters. Vivekananda says beautifully, 'Freedom is the basic condition for growth in any field.' In the East, we have total freedom to enter into the inner science.
Follow Me IN!
In the West, for somebody to become a spiritual figure, the organization has to declare that person a saint. The organization decides whether or not he is a saint. In the East, there is no need for any such thing. If a man thinks he has achieved, he can simply declare it to the world. In the East, things are totally different. In the East, we are free to enter deeply into life and seek the truth. That is why you will find so many philosophies, so many varieties, so many masters and so many ways in which the truth is uttered. Each and every master, and each and every way of expression, will ultimately lead you to the truth. Of course, there will be as many paths as there are, faiths. Ramakrishna says beautifully, 'Yathoma, tathopat – as many faiths, that many paths'.
Each and every person expresses his or her experience in a different way. For example: Patanjali says that the chakra in the head, the crown, is sahasrara - which means, literally, a thousand-petalled lotus. But if you open people's skulls, will you find thousand-petalled lotuses inside? Surely not. (In some heads you may find the mud out of which the lotus is born!) Then why does he say thousand-petalled lotus? It is a metaphysical expression of the experience that takes place when the energy reaches the Sahasrara. When the energy reaches the crown, the crown center, the experience is something like a thousand-petalled lotus blossoming. How beautiful it is! In just that way, your being flowers.
Your being expresses itself in all its glory. It is a metaphysical experience expressed using a physical example. But when the immature mind hears the expression, it tends to take the experience literally. So what happens is A small story totally different from what is understood. When one attempts to explain metaphysical experiences in ordinary language, the words can't match the experience and tend to distort it.
Follow Me IN!
A seeker approached an enlightened master, a Zen master, and asked, 'Master, does an enlightened man speak?'
The master replied, 'No, a really enlightened person can never speak. Enlightenment can never be expressed in words. An enlightened person can never speak - and if he speaks, be sure, he is not enlightened.'
The seeker then asked, 'So an enlightened person keeps quiet, he keeps mum?'
The master said, 'An enlightened man can never keep quiet. If he keeps mum, be very clear that he is not enlightened, because if you possess enlightenment, you cannot keep quiet. But in enlightenment, you can never possess, only enlightenment can possess you. If you possess something you can keep it under your pillow or put it in your treasure box and keep quiet. But when enlightenment, when God possesses you, you can never keep quiet. So if somebody keeps quiet, be sure he is not enlightened.'
The seeker was naturally confused, and asked, 'Then what is the truth? You say that an enlightened master never speaks, and then you say he never keeps quiet. Then what is the truth? What does he do?'
The master said beautifully, 'He sings'. There is only one way to express enlightenment – by singing. He becomes just a hollow bamboo. The divine uses him as a flute to express beauty, to express spirituality, to express reality.
What does the word 'singing' mean? The word singing means, the body language, the very body language is the only way to teach what enlightenment means. It can neither be said by words nor can it be conveyed by silence. Mere silence is something dead. Singing is also a kind of silence – a beautiful, vibrating silence. When the silence vibrates with energy, when it expresses itself at its peak, it becomes singing. It is neither words nor silence. Silence in negativity is wordlessness, soundlessness. Silence in positivity is singing.
Follow Me IN!
Whenever a person becomes enlightened, his very walk becomes a dance; his very movement becomes an expression of love; his very being sings, oozes bliss, oozes joy. That is the only way, the one and only way to express the simple truth. Whenever words are used to express the truth, you can be sure that it is not the truth. Of course, the Master is saying the truth – but you are not receiving the truth. Something happens in between; something is lost in transit, because he speaks on a different plane and you listen from a different plane. What transaction can take place between these two planes? Just one thing, actually: you can pick up something from his body language. You pick up something from his presence. That is the only truth that can happen with the master. That is why I say, 'The simple truth straight away'. The simple truth can come to you in a flash, simply by being in the presence of a master.
Once a Zen master was invited by the king to his palace to express, 'What is dhamma' (spirituality).
The master came, sat on the dais; he was just sitting, sitting and sitting. A
After a while, he simply walked out.
small story
The astonished king asked the master's disciples, 'What happened? Your master never said anything. He came, sat and went away!'
The disciples replied, 'Oh, no! He has never spoken so beautifully before. He has explained so wonderfully whatever needed to be explained!'
'What do you mean?' asked the King.
'Whatever had to be said, he spoke through silence,' explained the disciple.
'Then why did he come here? He could have done this sitting in his monastery! Why did he need to come all the way just to say nothing?'
The disciple replied eloquently, 'What he has to share cannot be spoken, but it can be given. Just through body language, by the being, by the presence, it can be conveyed in a way that is far beyond words.'
Follow Me IN!
Something happens in the presence of the master. If you listen with inner silence, you can hear it. If you listen with your mind, you will be attending to your inner chattering, which will measure my words rather than receive my message.
Either your mind will be accepting my words, and responding with, 'What a great orator he is! What a way he has with words!' and so on, or you will be resisting my words, thinking, 'I don't believe a word of what he says. What I feel is totally different.'
Either you will be accepting my words, or you will be resisting them. If you listen with your head, with your intellect, you will be doing only one of these. Either way, you will have missed the whole point of my presence. In the process of accepting and rejecting, you will not be listening to what I say. By the time you accept, you have already missed one statement of mine. By the time you resist, you have already missed two or three good statements of mine. So what you carry with you is not the total truth. What you carry is not the whole. Only when you carry the whole, do you carry the holy truth. Only whatever is whole is holy.
If you listen with your head, you will be either accepting or rejecting – both are not going to help. Instead, if you listen with an attitude of openness in your being, if you drop your continuous inner chattering, you will hear something that is beyond my words. You will see that something happens in you. My presence transforms you in a way that my words cannot. What you receive then is what I call the simple truth. You cannot find it in cassettes or video discourses. It cannot be stated in books. It can only be given to you by the master - straight away.
In fact, you can never get the simple truth from the Vedas or the Bible or the Koran. Certainly, they were all truths when the masters who spoke the words were alive. But now they are just words. Whenever masters speak, they do not speak just to give you some understanding or impart knowledge. Their whole purpose is different. They talk so that you drop talking. I talk so that you stop talking. Only if you stop talking, can something happen between you and me, some chemical process. Of course the right word is alchemy. Some alchemy happens. Some transmission of light takes place. That is the real truth.
Follow Me IN!
Because you are not able to receive the message as it is, we just use a few words to put your mind aside, to keep your mind engaged. While your mind is engaged in the words, your being opens to my giving. The simple truth can be transmitted, the light can be transmitted, the reality can be experienced, and THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM can enter into your being.
So just drop your mind; just drop your inner chatter, and see what is happening in your inner body right now.
We have two bodies. One is the outer body, which is here and the other is the inner body, which may or may not be here! Just feel what is happening to your inner body. Just put your inner body into your outer body and experience the presence of your inner body in your outer body; that is enough. You will learn from the body language of the master. If only your outer body is here, you will learn from my words. If your inner body is also here, you will learn from my body language. Whatever you can get from my words is half-truth. Whatever you can learn, whatever you can get from my body language, is the simple truth. Even as you are listening to me, something is transpiring between us. Simply allow that spiritual experience to happen to you, and you will have received the simple truth – straight away!
Thank you.
I shall spend a few minutes sharing your feelings, either answering your questions or questioning your answers; either way I shall spend a few minutes.
By the way, someone told me when I entered the hall, 'the group is very small.'
I felt really happy. Whenever I sit with a small group, I have the tremendous satisfaction that I have really shared something. For political meetings, you need big numbers. For spiritual meetings you need only the group, never numbers.
Follow Me IN!
OK, first question?