Choicelessness is an attribute of enlightened beings
Dear reader, even incarnations need to be provided with the right ambience as they grow in their earthly bodies. The ambience needs to be supportive and conducive for the effectiveness of their mission. The divine existence, Parasakti, plans their settling down on Planet Earth in line with the mission she has determined for them. Events seem to happen at random, but are never random. There is a correlation between one event and another, and the sequence, the path, is almost preordained. Ordinary mortals have definitive free will in choosing which fork of the path that they would choose and events unfold accordingly. In the case of enlightened beings there is an element of choicelessness that is part of the divine package.
When incarnations reach Planet Earth they are without samskaras and at the doorstep of enlightenment. They have to let go to reach enlightenment. Enlightenment happens; it can not be made to happen. Enlightenment is like river water. It stays in your hands as long as your hand is open; once you close your hands there is no water.
Bliss is choicelessness. If we try to make bliss a choice it will be absent. If we can understand the purposelessness of life as a part of the grand plan of existence we can and will reach enlightenment.
Ego believes that there is purpose to life; material, relational and spiritual. More purposes the stronger our ego feels. If we drop all other purposes and still hold on to purpose of enlightenment it is futile. Only when we realize that life is totally purposeless and drop our ego will enlightenment happen to us.
Even logically what is the purpose of existence? God who creates everything else including jungles, could he not have created concrete jungles and cities? Purpose of existence is bliss, that's all.
How can we enjoy without possessing, without making something our own? We are like water bubbles on a wave in the ocean. Each bubble catches hold of a few more bubbles….wife, husband, father, and son. Each collects sand articles thinking they are jewels. The bubble does not understand that it can burst any moment. A big bubble says it is going to be enlightened.
When we are ready to digest that everything is purposeless, material, relational, spiritual, only then life acquires meaning. Once we have a goal we miss the path.
Mind waits for something to happen. It waits for salary, weekly, monthly, yearly, 5 yearly payments. If someone offers us 100 years of salary and asks us to die tomorrow will we die? That's what most of us do. When we measure life by paycheck we reduce our spirit to matter.
Our ego is stuck on what we see as a purpose in life. After I settle my social responsibilities I will come to you, my Master and take up the spiritual path, we say.
An elderly lady came to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM with her son; wanted him to take the son into the ashram as a Brahmacharya. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was surprised since usually no parent would like their child to be a sanyasi. Vivekananda is great, but no one wants his son to be a Vivekananda. They feel how can my son or daughter be so blissful, when I am not? THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM asked to tell him why she wanted him to be at the ashram. She said that her son is mentally unsound.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was confused whether he was running an ashram or an asylum!
We have many reasons why we can not do things. By the time we finish on responsibility we shall have ten more waiting for us. Running becomes our conditioning, not relaxing. When we are young we tell ourselves that we shall relax after we graduate from University; then we shift the goal post to marriage; then to children; then to educating children; then their marriage. Can we relax after you are 60? By then we have missed the path.
The primal sin we can commit is to miss the path of life by following goals. When we live let our being be blissful; when we start hurrying let us think about what we are hurrying for; let us not allow restlessness in us, hoping it will settle; that will never happen. If we are not able to relax into the present moment, even after fulfilling our responsibilities we will still feel unfulfilled. When ever we run, whenever we hurry, think why, what for?
We may have big houses, drive big cars, and people around us always praising us. Can we carry anything with us? Can we carry with us even one single cheque book? It is all purposeless.
When we understand this purposelessness healing happens. Even if we have been abused, we shall heal, if we allow this understanding to happen; the understanding itself will guide us.
What kind of teaching is this, one may ask? All my life I have had a purpose, and my life has been fine. Now you say all that is without purpose. Whether we like it or not, that's the truth.
Our seeing an enlightened Master is a dream. Scriptures say: moment one sees an enlightened master one becomes enlightened.
Seeing the Master is not the same as looking at Him, which is what we do. Looking is with eyes, seeing is with the being. The closer we come to the Master more our understanding of Him changes. Our maturity allows us to see Him differently.
People get shocked. Now I know life is purposeless. I can not go to work. I can not take a vacation. That is the wrong understanding. Once you have the understanding of purposelessness you can never be lazy. Tamas (laziness) can not come out of intelligence. Perhaps for two days one will just lie in bed and not get up. Third day one will wake up as a different person, without restlessness; restlessness is a monster that one would have conquered.
Restlessness hides purposelessness from us; it hides the path with the goal. Please understand this and be healed. All our dreams of the future, all our guilt of the past will disappear; all ephemeral joys and suffering will vanish.
We referred earlier to this saint in Tiruvannamalai, Visiri Swamigal or Swami Ram Surat Kumar. He was innocent as a child. Whenever people came to him, whatever their problem was, he would say 'alright'. Some one died Swami, 'alright'; My son is getting married, 'alright'. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM asked him, Swami, why do you say alright to everything? He told THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM: Everything is just purposeless. Whatever you think has a purpose has no meaning.
Whenever we remember the truth of purposelessness, healing will happen, suffering will disappear; whether we have or do not have; neither has purpose.
We need courage to pursue truth and be enlightened. Life will then take a different path. We shall live as liberated souls. We shall never drop our jobs, relationships or wealth. We shall drop only what we do not have. We shall drop the mental associations and emotions attached to objects and events. We shall drop the fantasy of a throne and start enjoying the seat. When purpose is dropped meaning will happen.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's path to enlightenment had its own challenges. As we shall see later his first spiritual experience occurred when he was barely twelve. However, it took another 10 years before enlightenment happened to him. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM says now that had he let go possibly it would have happened earlier. His own struggles and rigorous practices perhaps delayed what may have happened sooner.
Kuppammal, the neighborhood Guru takes charge of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's knowledge development
When THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM was around seven and was at the Devi sannadi (altar) of Arunachala temple one day, he suddenly had a vision of a golden colored diagram. The figure made such an impression on him that he felt impelled immediately to draw it. He got himself a copper sheet and a nail and started carving this diagram out of memory.
When THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's grandmother saw him engaged in this work she became curious and wanted to know what he was doing and what this figure was. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM told her that he was drawing something he saw in his mind. She was not satisfied with this explanation. Unsure of what her grandson was up to, she asked her friend Kuppammal for advice.
Kuppammal was a sincere spiritual seeker. Kuppammal's mother was without child for a long time. The mother's guru was Seshadri Swamigal, an enlightened master of great reputation in Tiruvannamalai, and a contemporary of Ramana Maharishi. Seshadri Swamigal blessed the lady and gave her a handful of mud to eat. With complete faith and no hesitation the lady ate all of it. Later that year Kuppammal was born as if by divine providence.
Kuppammal had mastered the art of Kundalini tantra by the age of 12. She never menstruated till she was 21. Against her will she was married off by the time she was nineteen and was stopped from doing her spiritual sadhanas (practices). Only after her marriage, about two years after she stopped her sadhanas she started menstruating. She regretted her marriage, and single mindedly focused on her spiritual pursuit. Her own guru was Isakki Swamigal. Kuppammal was adept in tantric practices and could materialize anything she wanted. She had had the vision of Devi as Raja Rajeshwari. She became a great inspiration to the young THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM and was a compassionate guide. She added much into molding his personality.
Kuppammal asked THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM how he came to draw this figure and he told her what happened. She explained to him that what he had drawn was the very powerful Sri Chakra, a highly complex and mystic pictorial representation of the Universal Energy, which even very highly trained artists found difficult to draw. She was astounded that this young lad had so casually and without effort drawn the figure from memory. (Years later our Master THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM drew this chakra on a blackboard in about 5 minutes in order to explain its meaning). Kuppammal asked THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM whether he would like to learn the science of tantra which used Sri Chakra as a base for meditation practices and the boy eagerly accepted this offer.
Kuppammal was the first person who made THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM realize that he was different from other children of his age; that there was something extraordinary in his life. Till then THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM had not realized that what was happening to him was unlike that any one else around him was experiencing.