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Guilt, The Sure Killer Of Intelligence

GUILT, THE SURE CONTENTS KILLER OF INTELLIGENCE

L*et me start with a small story:*

In a small village, a little away from the main living area, the temple priest lived with his family. He was a pious man and his whole life, he spent in taking care of the local deity. He would bathe the deity, decorate it with fresh flowers and do the daily puja - offering. All the villagers respected him and his family.

One rainy night, just after dinner when the priest was relaxing with his family, he heard a knock on the door. Someone was knocking rather urgently. The priest was puzzled as no one from the village would come at that time of the night to his house. He opened the door and was totally surprised to see a young woman standing, completely soaked in the rain. The woman looked beautiful and well dressed.

She asked the priest, 'Please, can I stay here tonight? I was traveling to the next town when I got caught in the pouring rain. Tomorrow morning I will be gone. I will leave this place.'

The priest did not know what to do. He called his wife and informed her of the situation. The wife saw the poor woman standing and shivering outside. Being a compassionate woman she immediately asked her to come in, gave her dry clothes to wear, some hot food to eat and a warm bed to sleep in.

The next day morning, the woman thanked her hosts for their generosity and was about to take leave. As she was standing, waiting for the horse-carriage to arrive, the priest and his wife started talking casually to her. They said to her, 'In Bharat we don't hesitate to ask about each other and share personal information.

'Who are you? Where are you from?'

The woman replied, 'I am the king's favourite courtesan. My mother has taken ill suddenly, so I am on my way to my mother's place.' At that very moment the carriage arrived and she left.

The priest and his wife were very disturbed. They thought, 'What a big sin we have committed by giving shelter and food to a courtesan.' They immediately ran towards the well and drew water from it to clean the whole house! They burnt the bed she had slept in and then had a complete head bath to wash away the sin of sheltering a courtesan in their house that was filled with pictures of all the Gods.

They felt so guilty that they even went up to the temple deity and wept, 'Oh God, please forgive us for the sin of giving food and shelter to a woman of loose morals. Even if we did it for a single night, we are guilty of sinning against you! Please forgive us.'

Suddenly the priest heard a voice from heaven. The voice was also weeping. The priest and his wife were surprised. The priest asked, 'Who is that who is weeping?'

From above the voice came again, 'I am God. I am weeping.' The priest was shaken. He asked, 'But why are You weeping?' God replied, 'You have given shelter to a courtesan for one night and you think that it is a big sin. I give food and shelter to her everyday and for many others like her! Where will I go and wash my sins? That is why I am weeping.'

There is a beautiful moral to be understood from this story. The priest and his wife thought that they were holier than the courtesan. They offered her a place to stay out of a superior feeling, not out of compassion. It was their ego that played up.

All our guilt, all our rules, all our morality, all our ideas of right and wrong, are created only by these types of priests. When I say this, I mean the type of people who think they are holier than others; whose morality is confined to the skin level; who think they are more pure than others; that they are greater than others for no real reason except that they are priests. They are responsible for creating the rules which create guilt in us.

According to me, guilt is the greatest sin that we can commit. For our other sins, we will be punished only after our death. The sin of guilt punishes us while we live.

Look a little deeper. What is the root cause of guilt? It is our idea about right and wrong - our understanding about what is right and what is wrong. That is where guilt starts. What is right? What is wrong? Let us analyze. What is the scale to measure right or wrong?

In Hinduism, vegetarianism is right; in Christianity non-vegetarianism is right. In Hinduism you can marry only once; in Islam you can marry four times. In Hinduism, you can't drink alcohol; in Christianity, wine is part of worship. There are so many rules, so many regulations, different in different places, different in different situations and in different societies.

For somebody, a particular food might be amrita (nectar), while for another person the same thing might be poison!

In South Bharat, fish is considered to be non-vegetarian food. But in West Bengal, they refer to fish as Gangaphal (fruit from the sacred river Ganga!). Bengali brahmins who are considered a priestly class, eat fish and fish is considered vegetarian food. There is no Bengali house which doesn't have a small pond in front of their house where they grow fish. They eat fresh fish! Enlightened master Ramakrishna Paramahamsa used to eat fish regularly. For Bengalis, fish, sweet and tobacco are the basic requirements. Coming to the immoral habit of smoking, Ramakrishna used to smoke! Vivekananda used to smoke! They were enlightened masters, without a doubt. Of course, they smoked not as addiction but as a technique to keep themselves in their body. Enlightened masters develop some habit that would keep them in the body on planet Earth, or else their pull in the upward direction simply causes them to leave the body.

So what is this so called 'morality' about? It is just local customs and traditions. In the course of time, they become moral principles. If you read the ancient scriptures, the great epics of Bharat such as the Mahabharata, you will see that Princess Draupadi was married to five men! She lived with five men! If that was the case today, she would be in prison! There are so many different kinds of life systems with so many different kinds of customs. In the Mahabharata, Kunti had five sons from five different men!

There are so many kinds of morality; so many kinds of life structures and so many kinds of thinking systems. At different times, different rules were formed by different leaders. In some societies, something is considered moral, while in some other society, the same thing is considered immoral. In some society, something is right and in some other society, the same thing is wrong.

Here in America, in a particular state, casinos are allowed, while in the neighboring state, casinos are illegal. A river separates the two states and in the border line on the river between the two states there is a big casino! On one side it is legal, and on the other side it is illegal! Something can be a law in one place and the same thing can be illegal in an adjoining place.

So how does one scale right and wrong? Where is the scale to measure what is right and what is wrong? There is no scale. That is why in Sanatana Dharma, which is the correct name for Hinduism*, we have two scriptures. Sanatana Dharma* is the only courageous dharma (system of righteousness), to have two kinds of scriptures. In all other religions on planet Earth, they have only one scripture, only one ultimate holy book. And in most of the religions their holy book cannot be updated.

Sanatana Dharma is the only courageous religion which says its holy books can be updated. The scriptures here have been divided into two portions: Śruti (*Vedas* and *Upanishads*) and Smṛti (epics, books of conduct, etc). Śruti consists of the ultimate laws about enlightenment; Ātman (the Self); Brahman (the divinity); the concept of self realization, of the universe and so on. Smṛti consists of the social laws, day-to-day rules and regulations.

Hindus are the first courageous people who declared that their Smṛti can be changed. From time to time, enlightened masters could create new Smṛti because it is known that no moral principles can be moral principles forever. No law can be a law forever because both morality and law are based on situations, based on the type of people involved. If the deer population becomes too much, we are allowed to hunt. Similarly at one time, the population of cows was excessive in Bharat. This resulted in cows being given away in sacrifices. Once the number of cows became low, they started to worship cows again. It is all done with supreme awareness and in smooth harmony with nature.

These rules are created to maintain equilibrium in society; to maintain harmony in society. When we all live together, we need to understand and follow a few basic principles to live happily. For instance, you will not try to kill me so that I will not kill you. We both can live happily without fear. Like this, a few basic principles are drawn and put into being. Slowly they become rules. Then they become moral principles.

As long as we understand the root of these moral principles, we will neither behave immorally nor will we be disturbed by these moral codes. The problem arises when we are not taught the basis of these rules. When we don't know the basis, they become forced rules. Then, we not only try to step around these rules, but we also create deep guilt within ourselves when we disobey them. We get caught in this cycle of guilt because of a sheer lack of understanding.

When anything is a forced rule, we always try to break it. For instance, we always speed when we don't see the policeman around. Actually, there is some sense of adventure and satisfaction when doing things that one is not supposed to do.

A man who became addicted to smoking came to me asking for help, 'Master, please help me to quit smoking. I don't know how I became addicted. Please help me.'

I asked him, 'How did you start?'

He replied, 'Master, I never wanted to smoke. In fact, I hated the smell! One day my friend and I were talking on a street corner. My friend was smoking. My father saw us from a distance and thought that I was also smoking. When I went home, he started shouting at me. I tried my best to explain to him that I was not smoking, but he would not listen to me. So I thought, anyhow he is not willing to believe me and he is already shouting at me for smoking, so I might as well smoke! I had already been punished. That is why I started smoking.'

Most of the time, if we are asked not to do something, we feel provoked into doing it. We feel a sort of joy or satisfaction in doing it. That is a basic tendency in every human being. When you say 'no' to your parents, you prove you are a man. As long as you say 'yes', you are only a child. You feel you are not mature until you start saying 'no'. When you say 'no', you feel mature! It is a basic tendency.

You can see this in teenagers, especially in the Western countries. The moment they say 'no', they think they are grown-up and mature. They feel they have become mature, that they have become a man or woman by saying 'no' to their parents. That is why there are so many rebellious groups; so many so-called 'gangs'. It is because there is a deep satisfaction in saying 'no'.

Saying 'no' is addictive. When we say 'no', we are trying to prove we are somebody special - that we are a distinct individual. As long as moral principles are forced on us without any understanding of their source, we create two things; first, the desire to move away from them, and second, deep guilt within our being.

Two children were talking about their grandparents. One child said to the other, 'My grandmother talks a lot. I can't understand how she can talk so much. What does your grandma do?'

The other child replied, 'My Grandma crams in as many pages of the Bible as she can from morning till night.'

The first child asked, 'How come? Why does she do it?' The other friend replied, 'She says she is preparing for her final exam.'

The way in which morality and religion are projected to us, we pray only out of fear and guilt; that is the problem.

Another small story:

A great pundit - learned man - wanted to bathe in the sacred river, Ganges. He had a kamandalu (water pot) with him. He needed to keep it safe while he bathed. He looked around, but there seemed to be nobody trustworthy around who would keep it while he had his bath in river. So he made a small pit in the sand on the banks of the river, placed his kamandalu in it and covered the pit with sand. In order to remember where he had buried the kamandalu, he put a heap of sand on that spot. He then went to bathe in the river.

There was a farmer watching the pundit from a distance. He saw what the pundit had done. He thought to himself, 'Oh! I did not know that one is supposed to make a small sand mound on the river bank before bathing in the Ganges!' He immediately made a heap of sand similar to that of the pundit and then entered the Ganges to bathe.

Another person came to the river bank just then and saw the farmer making a small sand mound. He thought, 'Oh! It seems to be a tradition to make a sand mound before bathing in the Ganges.' He too made a small sand mound and went in to bathe.

By and by, all the people who came to the river for their bath started making sand mounds before entering the Ganges.

When the pundit returned from his bath in the river, he saw hundreds of sand mounds all over the river bank! He was now in trouble. Where was his kamandalu? Under which heap of sand was it hidden? He started to search, destroying the sand mounds.

Suddenly the freshly bathed farmer returned and shouted at him saying, 'Why are you destroying our Shivalingas? (symbol of God Shiva) Why are you destroying our sand mounds? You are a pundit, you should have some sense! Don't you know that one is supposed to make a Shivalinga before bathing in the Ganges? You are destroying our Shivalingas. Don't you have any sense?'

A sand mound naturally looks like a Shivalinga. The pundit wondered, 'What is this man talking about? When did this ritual start? It was me who just kept my kamandalu in a sand pit and now it has become a Shivalinga with a big following! I don't think I can do anything about this now.' He was not allowed to destroy the sand mounds. He had to move on without his kamandalu.

If we look into our lives, there are so many mounds that have entered it in the same way. There are so many speed breakers; so many obstacles that have entered our lives without any solid basis. By and by, with the passage of time, many regulations which were meaningful in the past have become rules in the present without having any meaning!

In Bharat, in the olden days, they would not do any sewing work after sunset. As they used needles to sew at night in the dim light of a hurricane lamp, it was difficult to sew and so it was customary not to sew after sunset. Even now in Bharat, we can see that after sunset, people will not do any sewing! Not even in some of the tailor shops where there are bright tube lights! There are so many tailor shops that have electrical lights, but they will not sew by hand after sunset. They may use machines, but never the hand alone.

When we don't have the correct understanding, practices become dead rules. When we have the correct understanding, any rule can become a technique to live life happily. When we have understanding, we will realize that rules facilitate happy, blissful lives for ourselves and people around us. We will automatically fall in line with them. Otherwise these very rules create hell for us and others.

I have seen a few people who sit down for meditation. Before they start their meditation, they create such a fuss at home! They will shout, 'Keep quiet, don't shout, switch off the music, do this, do that.' They practically turn the whole house upside down for the sake of ten minutes of meditation. Do you think that they will even manage ten minutes of meditation? The moment they start, they are either distracted, or dozing, or killing the mosquitoes sitting on them, or scratching some body part. At the end of it, they think they have done enough for the day. For this minor effort at meditation, they create so much drama! They practically turn the whole house upside down without understanding that meditation itself is done for the sake of peace in the house! Their meditation becomes a torture for the others at home!

Some people, when they try to silence others create a big noise themselves. They will be telling others to keep quiet in such a loud voice! In schools sometimes, one can see teachers make more noise than the children in trying to keep them quiet!

Anyhow, most of the time when we don't understand the root of moral principles, we start living in a dull and dead manner. According to me, any rule if internalized, will create guilt in us. Understand: it could be any rule. When I say 'any', I mean 'any rule'. Any rule which we follow without experiencing its essence will create a deep guilt in us because by nature we aspire for freedom. Svabhava swatantrata means our nature itself is freedom. We are free by our very nature. We are nithya muktas - eternally free. We never want to be caged! We never want to be slaves to rules!

Actually, if you see, society is struggling - working only towards attaining freedom. Our entire struggle is nothing but a struggle for freedom. Even our search for money is the search for freedom. If we have more money, we have bigger choices, bigger house, bigger car, more comforts; more freedom. Our choice for freedom is the real search. Our search for money is nothing but a search for freedom. So by our very nature we are searching for freedom. We never wanted to be caught by rules or moral principles. When some moral principle is given to us as a rule, either we try to go beyond it or if we can't, we take revenge on the people who imposed the rule on us. We always take revenge. We wait for the right time and take revenge on them.

People come and tell me, 'Master, my son is not taking care of me.' Be very clear: your son may be your worst enemy and you may be his worst enemy because you have imposed so many rules, so many regulations on him. You have laid down so many laws; you were his guide when he was young. Naturally, one part of his mind will respect you, while the other part will always be against you. The other part will be waiting to take revenge on you because you imposed rules and regulations on him. Therefore it can be expected that he will naturally be against you. This may not be obvious but it will be true at the subconscious level.

There are a few people who try to give us rules in a very subtle or cunning manner. They exploit our fear and greed by showing us hell and heaven; desire for heaven and fear of hell. They create so many concepts of hell and heaven in us. They say, 'If you practice a certain way of life, you will be rewarded with heaven; if you practice other ways of life, you will be rewarded with hell.' This concept of heaven and hell is a subtle way of exploiting our being.

When we are given rules based on greed and fear, it leads to the creation of deep guilt in us. This is one of the ultimate laws which is very difficult to understand. Nobody can live their life based on any law. When I say nobody, I mean nobody. When I say any law, I mean any law. Life is far superior to laws. All laws, rules and regulations are based on some understanding of life. But life is beyond our understanding and beyond our logic. People ask me, 'Why is life created at all?' I tell them, this 'why' can never be answered because this 'why' is based on your logic.

Life is based on God's logic. Our logic and God's logic can never meet. His logic is so big, so vast and so infinite. We can never meet His logic. Life is created by Him. Rules are created by us. Life is created by Him. Laws are created by us. Naturally, our laws can never match or fit with God's logic or God-created life. Life is natural. Laws are societal. Life is physical. Laws are mental. So all our ideas, all our do's and don'ts, all our morality, all our right or wrong is given to us by society.

We are called a saint or a sinner only by society. As long as we are given the title 'saint' by society, we are saints. The moment society gives us the title 'sinner', we are sinners. If we kill someone in society, we will be called murderers. We will be punished. If we kill someone in war, we will be called heroes. We will be rewarded with a big award! So understand that these things are purely societal. When we start internalizing the laws of society in our minds, we create a deep wound in our beings; we destroy our intelligence. According to me, rules and regulations are only superficial. All our concepts of morality are shallow; just look a little deeper! They are only skin deep!

In some religions, people are made to believe that they are born sinners. They live their entire life in guilt. This situation offers the religious leaders control over people through the fear element. The only sin, the 'original sin', is the ignorance of not realizing the truth - that we too are divine; that divinity is eternally present in us; that our true nature is to be blissful. When we believe that we are sinners, we commit the biggest sin. Once we throw away this guilt, the guilt that comes from the belief that we are born sinners until somebody saves us, we become liberated, and realize that we are already one with the divine.

Our true nature is always struggling to express itself, to go beyond all rules, regulations and all moral principles. Our consciousness is always trying to break through our conscience. Our consciousness continuously fights with our conscience. Conscience is societal. Consciousness is natural. Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness.

People ask me, 'What is this, master? You are breaking basic laws. You are pulling down the whole social structure. You are pulling down the whole structure of rules and regulations. Then how can we all live morally? How will people live without morality? Why are you doing this?'

You see: for children, we need rules to introduce them to morality. But for us, it is time! We are not children anymore! It is time to stand up and have morals based on understanding, not based on fear and greed. As long as morality is based on fear and greed, you can be sure that it is just skin deep. You can never be moral based on fear and greed. If fear and greed are the basis for your moral values, you will try all possible ways to escape them. For instance, you will speed just ten miles over the local speed limit and think, 'As soon as I see a policeman, I can press the brake and slow down.'

As long as your moral values are based on fear and greed, understand that you are still a child. You are not a mature adult. If you are really grown up, your moral principles will be based on understanding, not on fear and greed. According to me, a mature person means a person who lives a happy, blissful and quiet life without fear and greed. When we drop our fear and greed, a new kind of morality arises in our being; a morality which is different from social morality; a morality that is not superficial. It arises out of our being. Our entire being experiences a different kind of well-being.

Let me tell you a beautiful story:

There was a Zen master in a small village. For some unknown reason, the King of the land declared that this master should be killed the next morning. The Zen master was informed of the king's orders. The King had also said that the Zen master could do whatever he wanted until the next morning. He could live as he liked; he was given complete freedom.

But the master was seen following his daily routine even on his last day. He was seen gardening, fetching water from the well, cooking, serving his disciples and living in the same manner as before, like it was just another routine day.

His disciples asked him, 'You are about to die tomorrow morning. Don't you want to do something else?' The master replied, 'My life is based on a clear understanding. This is the best way I can live. I am totally fulfilled. I have nothing else I desire to do, whether I live for 24 hours or 2 hours. This is what I want to do. This is my enjoyment.'

If somebody gives us a similar deadline, 'You will only live till tomorrow morning; you can do whatever you want until then,' just look inside your mind; think of all the things you would do! You would probably live a life on this last day that you would never have lived before because of your suppression in the name of morality. That is why I say: our morality is superficial. We are controlling ourselves for some reason that we are not fully convinced about. We are not living life. As long as we don't live life, we will always feel that we are missing something. The feeling that we are missing something is the primary reason why we fear death. Mostly, we are not afraid of death itself. We are afraid that we have not lived our life fully and therefore we are afraid to die! Actually, it is not fear of death. It is the fear of not having lived life fully.

Guilt is the root of fear of death. This is an important thing we should understand! Guilt is the root of greed also! As long as we suffer from guilt, we can never enjoy anything. One of my devotees told me, 'Master, the moment I see an ice-cream, I get a cold. I don't even have to eat it. If I just look at an ice-cream, I catch a cold.' She had been suffering for the last twelve years. I attempted to trace the root of the problem with her; it was almost like psychoanalysis. I traced it to its root cause. Her mother created guilt in her about eating an ice-cream when she was a child. The mother didn't want her to eat too much ice-cream, so she created guilt in her; a deep negative attitude towards ice-cream. The negative attitude was responsible for the allergic reaction triggered just by looking at ice-cream. When we were talking, she said, 'Sometimes when I see an ice-cream, I can hear my mother's voice saying, 'Don't eat!' Even now I can hear her voice.'

All of us hear voices in us. Actually, we don't even know how many times we hear voices! We are not so sensitive, which is why we don't realize we can hear voices. Our being is a crowd of voices. Understand: we have reached a stage where our being is not just our being; it is a totality of a crowd of voices. All the voices are there: our mother's voice, father's voice, teacher's voice, neighbor's voice, professor's voice, our hero's voice, etc. We are a sum total of a crowd of voices. That is why we feel there is so much contradiction inside ourselves. If there were only one voice, we would never have a problem; our mind would flow like a river.

This is a beautiful analogy that we should understand. The mind is like a river; like a stream! Guilt is like the rocks in the river. It blocks the flow, creating whirlpools, creating energy blocks. Any guilt we carry in our being is blocking energy. Similar to a blood clot, this is an energy clot. All the voices which are inside our mind are the cause of guilt. And this guilt kills our intelligence.

As long as we flow like a river, like a stream, we will express extraordinary intelligence in our lives. We will express a different kind of intelligence; a different kind of energy; a different kind of bliss.

The moment we start creating guilt in ourselves, the moment we are stopped in our free flow, we create an energy clot inside our being; we create an energy clot in our mind. The older the culture, the greater the guilt. We tend to think that if our culture is old, we are better in some manner and so more guilt happens when we do things. All this will get offset when you operate out of consciousness.

Also, the older the culture, the lesser the understanding of it, because over generations, it gets diluted in understanding. If we live based on past rules without comprehending why these rules were created, we will create a deep wound inside our beings. We will create a deep wound inside our minds.

After talking to this lady, I came to the conclusion that it was her mother's voice that was creating the disturbance. I gave her a simple technique. I told her, 'Just get yourself five ice-creams; don't bother about your mother. If you hear your mother's voice, just be angry with her and eat the ice-cream.'

Anger is a beautiful way to release guilt. The moment we express anger, guilt is also released. Actually, anger and guilt are two sides of the same coin. Anger is a wonderful way to release guilt. The moment we become angry with the person who is responsible for creating guilt in us, we release the guilt.

When we create guilt within ourselves based on somebody's opinion, how do we create that guilt? We create it because we respect that person. The moment we become angry with him, naturally that respect is lost. We understand we have been exploited and are disturbed by it. Quite often that person may not even realize he was exploiting us.

A small incident happened a few months back.

An American lady brought her son to me with a complaint. She said, 'Master, he is not obeying me. Please advise him.'

I felt a little awkward. I never obeyed my mother. How could I advise this boy to obey his mother? The boy looked intelligent. But the mother kept pestering me, so I had no other option.

I started talking to the boy. I asked him, 'Why don't you obey your mother? She made even me obey her just now. Why don't you listen to what she is saying?'

The boy looked at me and replied, 'Master, she herself is not happy. If I follow her words, where will I end up? I will also end up in the same way. Why are you asking me to obey her? Why are you asking me to listen to her?'

I was shocked! Somehow I managed to convince him for the sake of his mother. But I think the next generation is going to sue their parents if they fall into depression! Children are going to sue the parents. They will say, 'My parents didn't give me the correct mental set-up which is why I am now depressed.' Be careful! We have to find a means by which we will not create guilt in the minds of children; a method by which we will create only more intelligence, more understanding and more bliss in their lives.

According to me, experience is more solid than morality. Consciousness is more solid than conscience. Of course, we need a little patience to create consciousness. We need to work on children; we need to explain every step to them; we can't just spoon-feed them. We can't just spoon-feed consciousness. We can spoon-feed conscience; just do's and don'ts. But with consciousness, we can't do that. We need to work with children. Unless we have this much patience, we have no right to bring one more life to this planet. People come and tell me, 'Master, you don't know, it is very difficult. If you had a child you would understand. You say these things, but it is very difficult to manage them or kindle their intelligence. We have to create guilt and give them rules.'

If you can't take the responsibility, you must think twice before you decide to give birth to a child. Understand! Have you solved your life's problems? Have you found solutions to all your problems? Then go ahead; bring the next generation to this planet. Otherwise... wait! There is every chance the next generation will demand of you, 'What are you doing? Why did you bring me into this world?' Already children have begun to ask, 'She herself is not happy. Why should I follow her?'

There is every chance that tomorrow's children are not going to listen to our idea of morality.

Not only for the sake of our children but for our own sake we should look into our lives. I think that Vivekananda was one of the most courageous masters who lived on this planet. He had nothing to do with the so-called society. He broke every rule; he gave a new light to humanity. I believe He was Manu - The sage who coded a book on social laws - of modern days. He was the smriti kara - creator of social laws - of modern days.

He said in one of his discourses, 'Reason and Religion': let religion be flooded with logic. Let your religion be flooded either by reason or by logic. Let whatever that can be washed away by reasoning, be washed away. The earlier they are washed away, the better it is for humanity.'

He said, 'flood religion with reasoning.' Allow reason to be the main thing. Let our consciousness be the torch, while we flood religion. The earlier the superstitions are washed away, the better it is for humanity. If they can't stand the flood of reason or logic, let them be washed away. It is better for humanity.

A small story:

There was a scientist, Galileo, who discovered that the Earth was not flat, that it was in fact a globe. He wrote after his research that the planet Earth was round; it was a globe; it was not flat. But the Christian Inquisition at that time, was so convinced that they were the total authority, and the 'church' had such complete control over the culture, that they succeeded in forcing Galileo to recant his discovery of fact. In their ignorance, they knew the Sun went around the Earth, and were not going to be told otherwise by a scientist.

So the Christian court, the Inquisitors, summoned the scientist. They called him and said, 'You can't say that our planet Earth moves around the Sun. You have to change your statement, otherwise you will be killed.' In those days, they were not only killing anyone who disagreed with them, they were also torturing in very un-Christian ways. Galileo finally agreed saying, 'Alright, I will change my statement.' He changed his statement to this: 'My earlier statement was wrong. The Sun moves around the Earth.' He made a small footnote in this book: Because I am Christian, I have changed my statement. But the Sun and planet Earth are not Christians. So they go around as they go around. They are not going to change their direction of movement based on my statement.

When someone points to the moon with their hand, if you grab their hand, naturally you miss looking at the moon because you have changed the direction of their hand. The next generation ends up looking somewhere else. Not only do we miss looking at the moon, we ensure that the next generation also misses looking at the moon. As long as there is understanding, there is nectar in our lives. It creates tremendous intelligence in our life. The moment understanding is reduced to a superstitious belief, the moment it is reduced to morality, it creates deep guilt in us. And guilt is the sure killer of intelligence. It will not allow us move on in our lives.

I would like to tell you about an incident. A devotee had a tumor at the end of her spinal cord near the root chakra. She had suffered for twenty years. She came to me and said, 'Master, please help me, heal me. I have been suffering with this tumor for so many years.' She told me that even after surgery, the tumor came back. I started by talking to her to help trace the origin of the problem.

Finally, she opened up and started to weep. I asked her if she had any guilt related to her sex energy. She told me that she had been abused when she was very young, while she was a child. One of her close relatives had abused her for many years. That guilt stayed with her and she said, 'I started hating that part of my body. I started wishing that that part of my body did not exist. I felt as if that part did not belong to my body. My hatred towards that person was redirected towards my own body.'

Her hatred had become very deep. She slowly opened up to me. When she brought the guilt up, I continued talking to her, helping her come out of the guilt. She was psychologically healed. I explained to her how this was a common occurrence. Studies reveal that one in four children is sexually abused, especially in America. Of course, children don't open up; they don't tell us.

This lady was psychologically healed after I explained the nature of such matters. You will be surprised to hear this, but the lady was cured in just 10 days. The tumor simply disappeared! I had given her a small meditation technique. I told her to meditate on that area while expressing her anger towards the person who abused her. I told her to weep, shout, cry, even hit the person in her visualization; to close the doors of her room, take a pillow, imagine that pillow to be the person, weep, cry, shout and hit the pillow! After that, sit silently and feel that the particular body part was an integral part of her body. You will be surprised: in just 10 days the tumor disappeared. It never came back. It may be difficult to understand, but it is true.

Similar things happen in our lives due to psychological factors. When we fall ill, it is not always a condition of physical ill health. Sometimes we are psychologically disturbed. Most of the time, our energy gets blocked because of guilt. We suffer psychological illness because of our guilt. If we look deep, wherever we have fear, wherever we are unable to move, wherever we are unable to make decisions, there will be some guilt. And because of this, we fall ill.

There are three types of guilt: first, guilt created by immediate family; second, guilt created by social laws; third, guilt created by one's own self. These are the three major kinds of guilt which kill our intelligence. Guilt about sex is generally the guilt created by our immediate family. This is the first guilt. Guilt associated with greed is also created by one's immediate family. Guilt based on fear is created by social laws. The third guilt, which is the worst, is the one which we create ourselves. When we internalize guilt based on greed and fear, we create new types of guilt for ourselves. If we analyze situations in which we find ourselves stuck, or with which we may be struggling, we will find the three kinds of guilt present at the root of the problem.

We must break free from the past. The past is dead. Not only is it dead, it is a dead weight on our being. As long as we have guilt, we will never be able to move forward in our lives blissfully; we can never have deeply blissful lives. Be very clear: we can never be moral based on guilt. If our behavior is based on guilt, our morality becomes immature and superficial. It is time to be mature. We will not behave immorally if we understand that rules are created for our own sake. For instance, if we come to know that there is no punishment in this country for committing murders, will we kill the next person? If one wants to do such a thing, then it means that the person is immature, not grown up. Then such a life is not worth living. He is like the living dead.

For nine years prior to enlightenment, I walked the length and breadth of Bharat; from Tapovan in the north to Kanya Kumari in the south; Ahmedabad in the west to Ganga Sagar in the east. I have walked the length and breadth of Bharat. I have always meditated in graveyards because it was much easier; I didn't ever have to make reservations! People always asked me, 'Weren't you afraid? Did you encounter any ghosts?' I tell them, 'Dead people don't disturb others. Only living people disturb others!' If one's moral principles are based on greed and fear, then be clear that such a life is much worse than being dead. It is not worth living.

Let our morality be based on our understanding, on consciousness, not on conscience. As long as our principles are based on 'do's and don'ts', we are just children. These rules, based on our lack of understanding, form a block between enlightenment and us. As long as these blocks exist we can never touch enlightenment. The moment these blocks are removed, we experience total freedom, total bliss, total ecstasy; then naturally enlightenment happens; we won't have to reach out to enlightenment; enlightenment will reach out to us. Understand that guilt is the sure killer of intelligence. May we kill the guilt and experience the ultimate intelligence!

Our Upanishads say, 'prajnanam brahma' (Intelligence is Existence). May you experience that Existence and experience the Eternal Bliss ... nithyananda!

We will spend a few minutes addressing questions. I will now try to answer your questions.

Master, you said that it was unnecessary for someone to do extensive periods of tapas (penance) in their search for enlightenment. How is that possible for a practical man?

What I spoke of is for the practical man. Understand: when I recommend one should do tapasya (penance), people say it is impractical. When I say there is no need to do tapasya, people ask me to explain in a practical manner why it is not needed. The very understanding can lead you to express enlightenment. The right listening and understanding can lead one to express their innate nature - which is enlightenment!

According to me, enlightenment means being in eternal bliss. When you are in bliss, nothing in the outer world can disturb you. Your outer world will never enter your inner world. That is what I call enlightenment. Simply understand that your outer world is your outer world. Your inner world is your inner world. Whatever you do in the outer world, do it like housekeeping in a dream. What will happen to all our housekeeping done in a dream when we wake up? It simply disappears! That's all! But when you are in the dream, it is intense. If you can maintain this understanding, not only will you do things intensely, you will also not have any attachment to it! That is the way!

Now you may possibly have a few more questions like, 'How does one lead life practically?'

When I refer to housekeeping in a dream, I don't mean, 'Don't do this housekeeping.' Do it, but do it in a way that you are not disturbed by the housekeeping; do it with the simple understanding that our entire life is nothing but housekeeping in a dream! Continue to do the same housekeeping with this clear understanding. It will be more than enough to express enlightenment. You don't need to work to suppress your greed or fear or any other quality. You need to work only on this single idea: that your entire life is housekeeping in a dream! You will then automatically be free from greed and fear and other emotions.

You should feel that, 'I am doing my housekeeping because I enjoy it.' When we were young, we played with toys. When we came to be around 10 years old, we threw away the same toys; we outgrew those toys. Just because we threw away our toys when we were young, it doesn't mean that we will not give toys to our children. Would we say to them, 'I always played with toys when I was young and then threw them away. So don't play with toys?' No! We don't say that. We allow them to play.

We feel a child should play with toys as long as it wants to, till the child reaches maturity. When it becomes mature, it drops the toys automatically. In the same way, we must understand and accept about ourselves, 'Let me play housekeeping in dreams until I really understand.' This very acceptance will lead you to enlightenment. If you are unable to accept, just accept that you are unable to accept it, that is enough! You are pulled towards the past or future only because you don't understand what is!

Recently, one of my close devotees asked me, 'Master, you are so casual; so innocent; so playful. But how is it possible that any word you utter becomes true. How can so much intelligence and intuition happen in you continuously? How can you be so playful and paramount at the same time? Your words are clearly turning into reality!'

We should understand something clearly: we are unable to experience intuition because we are unable to fall into the present moment. We are always pulled by either the past or the future. Either we work and worry about the past or we work and worry about the future. Something or the other is continuously going on. And so we miss the present.

Time is like a shaft. Visualize this one thing and understand: time is like a shaft. We are either pulled to this side of the shaft or to that side of the shaft. We never feel relaxed; a deep craving exists within us at all times, either to achieve something in the outer world or to achieve something in the inner world. The craving to achieve something in the inner world is also a craving for the future. Our craving for enlightenment is also worry about the future. Because of craving o some sort, we never fall into the present moment. Remember: eternity penetrates only the present moment.

The first thing to do is to accept the existence of the outer world; accept the existence of the inner world; whatever problems you have in the outer world and whatever problems you have in the inner world, accept them all. As long as you don't accept them, there is a problem.

Just try this small experiment: relax completely for just three days; not more than that; just three days. If you live a satisfied life for just three days, will you lose all your wealth in your inner world or outer world? Surely not! In three days you are not going to lose anything. Why don't you give it a try? For just three days, sincerely, utterly, one hundred percent, drop, accept. If you are unable to accept a hundred percent, accept that you are unable to accept a hundred percent.

Even the acceptance that one is unable to accept themselves in the inner world and outer world will make one drop from the rut of being pulled between past and future. The moment we understand, 'I am not able to accept my reality; there is nothing I can do!' even the very push and pull will become our reality. If we accept everything then we will fall into the present moment. The moment we fall into the present moment, the time shaft will become our servant. As long as we are below the time shaft, it rules us; we will be pulled or pushed by the time shaft. The moment our consciousness is raised to the present moment, we see that we are penetrating the time shaft. When we penetrate the time shaft, the future and the past are clearly known to us. We then come to the tremendous realization that the time shaft exists only due to the projection of our mind!

Try this experiment for just three days; if you can fall into the present moment, relaxing the headaches related to the outer world and the inner world, in three days time, you will have a glimpse.

What is life? What does it mean 'to live in the present moment'? You will experience such ecstasy, such a different space, such a different life when you live in the present moment. Three days! You must attempt to not alter anybody in the outer world after this experience. After all you have lived based on your own changing philosophies for the last 30 years. Give yourself just three days for a trial. You will see when you experiment with these great techniques, how they work miracles in your being, how they start working alchemy in your being.

A sincere three days trial; if you are unable to be sincere, accept that you are not able to be sincere. Even that sincerity is enough. You will start seeing a different space in you. That different space is what I call nithya - eternity.

May you experience that nithya - eternity and nithyananda - eternal bliss!

Love To Survive

Many of us think that love is a choice. We feel that the experience of love and expression of love are choices that we can make. If we want, we can have it. If we don't want, we can leave it. But it is not so. As a human being, it is as basic a necessity as it is to be alive.

Can we think of experiencing love and then expressing it to be a choice? No! It is not a choice as we think. When we experience love, there is no choice but to express it. If we don't experience and express love, we may inhale and exhale, but we can't say we are alive. There are so many animals which are breathing in and breathing out, so many other lives which are there on this planet. In a sense one can't say all of them are living; even to feel that one is living, love is a basic necessity.

Let us look a little deeper into the meaning of the word love. The word love is too contaminated and too loaded with many different meanings, interpretations, commentaries. Forget the idea of selfless, unconditional, spiritual love. We don't even need to bother about that yet. Let us first consider normal, simple love with all its possessiveness, jealousy and whatever other side effects it may cause! Even that love does a lot for our body and mind. After that we can look at selfless and spiritual love or mature love.

First, let us analyze love, the feeling of affection that we share in our normal day-to-day lives, which has so many side effects and after effects like possessiveness, jealousy and anger. All these are the after effects of ordinary love. Even this love does a lot for our bodies, does a lot of good for our minds.

I was reading a magazine the other day which contained a survey report. I was amazed to see the report. The title was, Live Forever. It gave eleven techniques, eleven important instructions to extend one's life by at least 20 years, supported by standard statistics and survey reports.

reports. All the eleven were related to love. It said that even caring for a pet animal releases a hormone which allows you to live at ease with your body. If caring for your pet animal does so much, surely caring for your husband or for your wife will do a lot more!

Another point it stated was about how people die early if they are single or are widowers, and how life gets extended if we are caring for, or being cared for by somebody. Also, in the second case, it is said that there are lower chances of cancer and depression. Even what we call ordinary love, simple infatuation, can do miracles for our body and mind. It gives a deep feeling of healing, of well being. I am not advocating infatuation. I am trying to explain what even ordinary love can do to a person. Ultimately, all infatuation should end in pure love.

A small analysis from Tantra, a part of Hindu philosophy: Tantra says that there are five types of restlessness that we all suffer from which can be healed by ordinary love - ordinary, simple, human love - the feeling of caring for each other; I am not speaking of high spiritual love, what we call bhakti or devotion, selfless love – which is seeing the whole world as God - this comes later.

Let us first talk of simple practical love which we may share for some reason; either because that person supports us socially or that person will stand up for us when we face difficult times, or because we feel that the person supports us mentally or psychologically, or maybe we want a good certificate or name from him. For any of these reasons, we may show love. Even love expressed with a selfish reason heals us from five different kinds of restlessness.

The first kind of restlessness happens due to the place. Sometimes in a particular place or situation we feel restless. If we move from that place or situation, we feel more settled. Even in such places or such situations, an expression of love - even the body language of love can make things better; it can heal.

Becoming comfortable with the space around us makes us less tense, less restless. A house becomes a home when we live in it with love and care. Similarly, any place can become home to us if we choose to love and care for it. We should find simple things that we like about a new location, things that we can relate to and things that can make us smile. Once this is done, the rest is simple; love will break through the rest.

The next type of restlessness is due to physical reasons. Physical restlessness is a form of tension within our body. Any tension in our bodies, any uneasiness can be released when we express our love to somebody. You may ask: how love can take away physical restlessness. We can see in our own lives - a mother who has a child to look after, feels continuously rejuvenated; otherwise taking care of children is not an easy job! She feels rejuvenated because of the love and care she feels for the child.

Tension or restlessness in our body is removed when we care for somebody, when we smile at somebody, when we express love in our body language. In fact, you can try it out. At the time you feel tense inside your body, just decide consciously and melt with love towards somebody. That very moment, the tension will disappear! For example, you may be lying down feeling unwell. If some friend visits you at that time or when somebody you love visits, you immediately sit up and talk to them and feel better, is it not? You feel instantly rejuvenated. When you really love somebody, you express your energy. Even a simple smile can cause this switch this to happen if that smile comes from our heart. This is why they say, 'When you meet someone without a smile, give them yours!'

There are four things we need to understand: love, intelligence, energy and bliss. All these four feelings are four sides of the same pillar. When we express a feeling through our head, it is intelligence. When we express through our heart, it is love. When we express through our being, it is energy. When our being just relaxes without any reason, it is bliss! All the four are the same phenomena, expressed through four different names.

So whenever we express love, we express energy also. Love is concentrated and caring energy. So naturally, whenever we express love, we become a channel for energy, and when we are a channel for energy, we not only help others, but are also helped ourselves.

Any mental restlessness can be healed by love. When we care for pets or play with children, we can avoid heart attacks; these can postpone any fatal disease. Pets release tension. They do not talk back to us. They just listen and express love. Their energy heals us.

The next type of restlessness is the restlessness of emotion. Mental restlessness is different; that is intellectual. Emotional restlessness means the restlessness which cannot be controlled by a few words, just by consoling oneself. It can be healed only when we express love. When we start radiating love, it floods our being with energy. Our being is opened to the higher energies. This heals our emotional restlessness.

Ultimately we come to spiritual restlessness. Just the pure love for your teacher or master can heal spiritual restlessness! Many people come and tell me, 'Master, just by being in your presence we are able to meditate. Why are we not able to meditate at home?' The reason is, whenever we meet great people - swamis and saints - we start relating with them, we start expressing our love towards them. This heals our spiritual restlessness completely. What do I mean by 'spiritual restlessness'? It is the inability to sit comfortably with oneself, alone, in silence.

I see so many people; they can sit with others, with the television, with the newspaper; but they can't sit with themselves! This is what I call spiritual restlessness. They know to spend time with everybody but they do not know how to spend time with themselves.

If you observe me as I speak, you will notice long gaps between successive words. In those gaps, my intention is to bring down the feeling of spiritual restlessness in you. People who are not spiritually inclined, who are not mature enough to listen to these great ideas, can never sit and listen to spiritual discourses, at least with me. This is because their mind continuously needs food; it is constantly jumping from thought to thought. When I create gaps of silence in my talks, immediately boredom shows up in these people! Their mind will say, 'I must leave. There is nothing happening here.' Only a man who can sit with himself can listen to these great words. If he can't even sit with himself, how can he be helped even if he listens to my words?

The mind is such that it continuously demands information; it waits impatiently for the next word. Why are we so comfortable in front of the television or in a cinema theater? There is so much material being pushed inside our being without a gap, that's why. So much information, so many ideas are sent inside our being to support our restlessness. So we feel very comfortable. Why do we enjoy food that is spicy? Again, too much is sent inside, that's why. When you feel like scratching an itch, you feel comfortable because again when you scratch, you get busy! Spicy food is nothing but 'scratching' the tongue. It is a sort of comfort when information is flooding our mind.

There is one thing you should understand about watching movies. When you are traveling at 30 km per hour, you can read all the signboards; see all the trees and the scenery around clearly. If you are moving at a speed of 130 km per hour, will we be able to see anything clearly? There are far too many frames per second for our senses to grasp anything. If the number of frames is less than 6 per second, you can clearly read and understand the information on display. If the number of frames is more than 6 per second, your consciousness cannot relate through the eyes anymore. While watching a movie or television, you are exposed to 12 to 16 frames per second. So naturally your consciousness is just pushed aside! And because we are disconnected from our consciousness, we simply fall for the scene that we see. If the hero of the movie dies, although we may be well aware of the fact that the actor is alive and making his next movie, we cry for his death! We are educated, logical and intellectual people; we are aware that what we are viewing is just a movie, but still, we laugh with the scene, cry with the scene and experience changing moods with it.

In this way, scratching, spicy food, movies are all things which keep flooding our systems with information or sensations. This creates a deep restlessness as a side effect. If we have this deep restlessness, we cannot sit and listen to great spiritual ideas; and I make sure that people with restlessness do not sit here because they not only don't understand, but they also misunderstand!

Misunderstanding great truths is very dangerous; a half truth is worse than a lie. So if one has the patience to sit and listen to these words, one's spiritual restlessness comes down; also the probability of our mind demanding constant information in the form of the next thought also comes down. We become so passive that these thoughts not only touch our heads, but directly touch our hearts as well. If we are totally passive, our being opens up at the emotional level. If we are totally relaxed, at ease with ourselves, without too many thoughts crowding our minds, we will see that our being just absorbs these great truths.

YOU ARE NO SINNER!

In Vedanta we say, 'shravana, manana and nididhyasam' to describe this process of calming down. It is listening, meditating and practicing. If our minds are calm, there is no need to meditate separately. The very listening can create the same experience, can become the experience; 'shravana' - listening, can lead to experience. According to me, if our 'shravana' is not proper, even 'manana' meditating, cannot help; contemplating silently cannot help.

J.Krishnamurthi says that listening to God - deep, total listening without restlessness, is divine. That itself is God.

If we look deeply into our being, the very presence of a master heals the spiritual restlessness. Love towards the master heals spiritual restlessness.

So our love, even if it is simple and normal love, heals all five aspects of restlessness.

Now let us look into the higher type of love, the love that was experienced by Meera, Chaitanya, Ramakrishna, and Ramana Maharishi, all the great saints. Ramakrishna said, 'My love for the divine is a miser's love for his money, a chaste wife's love for her husband, a mother's love for her child - all these three put together and something more!' Of course, we will not be able to understand such love through these definitions. Love for the divine is a feeling of being one with the other; falling in tune with the other person in totality; it is an ecstatic feeling, the highest expression of our being.

Just by the utterance of the word 'Krishna', Meera would experience ecstasy. In the scriptures, it is said, 'If tears roll down as you listen to God's name, be sure that it is your last janma (birth)'. Ramakrishna also makes a similar comment in his 'Gospel of Ramakrishna'.

If we listen to the devotional songs sung by Annamacharya on Lord Balaji, we realize that the Divine is an actual experience for him.

In some of his verses, Ramana Maharishi laments before Arunachala, the Lord of Tiruvannamalai. He says, 'You are my house owner, my husband. How then can you stand by and watch while thieves come in and take me away, O Arunachala?' What a beautiful verse! The five senses are referred to as the thieves who come into the house and take away the being that is him; Arunachala is the soul, the divine self within.

Somebody asked Ramana Maharishi, 'Bhagwan, how can you say these things to God?' Bhagwan replied, 'For you, God is just a faith, just a belief; for me He is a living being.'

A small story:

A devotee had been praying to Vishnu for ten years but never got a darshan (vision) of Him. So he decided to stop worshipping Vishnu and pray to Shiva instead. He set Vishnu's statue aside and placed one of Shiva before him and started worshipping it.

One day, he lit incense sticks before the Shiva statue. The incense smoke rose up towards the Vishnu statue. The man became very angry. He had prayed to Vishnu for so many years and never got blessed with a darshan. He reached out and held Vishnu's nose as he did not want Vishnu to enjoy the lit incense sticks.

As he was pressing the nose, suddenly he felt like he was actually pressing a live nose. He opened his eyes to see Vishnu in front of him; Vishnu was giving him a darshan! His hand dropped from the Lord's nose and he exclaimed, 'O Lord! For so many years you did not grant me a darshan and now when I am denying you the perfume of these incense sticks, why do you give me your darshan?'

Vishnu replied, 'When you prayed to me all these years , you did not feel that I was alive in that statue; only now when you put your hand to my nose in anger, did you have the intensity of feeling that I was actually there in the statue. When you have such a deep feeling of connection, I have to come down and give you a darshan!'

There are so many very intense incidents, which express the power of love. Love can perform miracles in your being, not only at the mental level, but even at the physical level. Ramakrishna used to say that sometimes after performing puja to Mother Kali, he would wonder whether Mother was alive in the idol, or whether he was wasting his time worshipping a stone. So he used to place a small thread in front of the idol's nose to check whether She was breathing or not. He said the thread always moved with the flow of Her breath!

When we express our deep love, we will see that Existence never misses in relating or responding to us! We can give life to the whole of Existence with love. With just this feeling, it is possible to make the whole world come alive. Whatever we see, feel and experience, then becomes a joyful thing.

Through another small incident, we can see what love can do:

There is a story in the life of Sadashiva Brahmendra, one of the great saints of South Bharat. He always went around without any clothing. He lived just like a child.

One day he was walking in deep ecstasy, when the Nawab - the Muslim ruler of that territory - went riding by. The saint was in such deep ecstasy that he did not notice or pay respect to the Nawab. The Nawab turned wild with fury and cut off the saint's hand with his sword. Sadashiva Brahmendra continued to walk, hardly noticing the absence of his hand. But one of his devotees started weeping, 'O master! You have lost your hand for not showing courtesy to the Nawab.' The saint was surprised and asked her to bring the severed hand. He then put it back on and it became whole again!

The devotee was dumbstruck when she saw this.

The saint explained, 'The Nawab's hatred destroyed my hand; your love healed it!'

Love has the power to heal.

Ramana Maharishi always used to say, 'It is the love of devotees which keeps me in the body.' Any master comes down and lives in his body just because of the love of his devotees. Masters as such have no karma (unfulfilled actions); they have nothing to achieve, nothing to gain. They don't have anything to enjoy. Then why do they remain in the body? Only because of the love of their devotees.

When we express normal love with all its expectations, it heals five different kinds of restlessness. However, love without expectation simply performs miracles! Ordinary love gives us life; selfless love gives life to even the stone that we worship! Even stone can become God, even an ordinary man can become a guru. Such is the power of faith.

A beautiful incident from the great Hindu epic Ramayana:

Rama, the hero of the epic had to go to Lanka with his entire army to bring back his wife Sita. Sita was held in captivation by the villainous Ravana. There is an ocean that he had to cross to reach Lanka. A bridge had to be built across the ocean to accomplish the task.

Rama ordered one of his devotees, Jambavan - the great bear - to take care of the construction of the bridge across the ocean.

He asked his best devotee, Hanuman, to fly across the sea to first locate Sita. Hanuman said, 'Oh Lord, you are asking Jambavan to construct the bridge and asking me to fly to Lanka. How can I do it?'

Rama replied, 'You just chant the name Rama and you will be able to accomplish the mission. Chanting the name of Rama is more powerful than my physical form.'

Hanuman obeyed him without an iota of doubt and accomplished the task!

Love gives rise to faith and gives life even to stone. Selfish love, when expressed, heals your five feelings of restlessness and gives life to you. Selfless love gives life to everything around you. When you express selfless love, it gives more life to other beings as well.

Therefore, love to survive and to give life. Whether the love is selfish or selfless, start expressing love. Let that become your body language. Let that become your lifestyle. Let that become your very life itself. May you feel and experience eternal bliss - nithyananda.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Master, can you please explain what part divinity plays in a miracle? You say miracles happen. Does divinity make them happen? What are you referring to as divinity?

In any action, normally you understand three things: first, the person who does it, second is the act and the third is the thing that is done; the doer, the deed and the result. All these three things can be understood as three separate things logically, in this normal plane.

In the ultimate plane of reality there are no three different things. You ask what role divinity plays in a miracle. The very miracle itself is divinity. When you ask this question, you are asking for cause, effect and the act; you are asking whether divinity is the cause, the act or the effect. In the language of divinity, these three different things do not exist; they are all one.

Normally if I have to raise my hand, first the brain has to give the order, the order has to be carried to the hand and the hand has to act. In the language of normal human beings, these three things have to occur. But in divinity all the three are one and the same, and do not exist separately. So the very divinity is a miracle.

Many people come and ask me who created the world. There is no creator. Please be very clear: Existence created itself. The universe is a self-created entity. The very creation itself is a creator; it is intelligence, continually created.

It is a little difficult to understand. It is just 'creating'. The process is continuously going on because of its own intelligence. There aren't three separate things: creator, creation and created. There is just 'creating'; a self expression of intelligence. So in any miracle, the miracle itself is divine. The cause for the miracle is divinity, the happening is divinity and the result is also divinity.

If a person does not even have the desire to seek a guru, is there anything wrong with that person?

Something is seriously wrong! When you know that you don't know, you at least know that you don't know. When you don't know that you don't know, you don't even know that you don't know! When we don't know that we don't know, we don't search for a master. Only when we know that we don't know, we can start to know and when we start to know, the master happens in our lives.

Einstein became enlightened in the process of intensely studying Physics. Ouspensky became enlightened because of Logic and Mathematics. If we go deeply into any subject, we can become enlightened because all paths lead to the same goal. There is no need to do only puja or meditation to become enlightened.

Even if one does scientific research deeply to the very end, one can reach enlightenment. I always say, 'If one is logically logical, one goes beyond logic.' Ouspensky met his master, George Gurdjieff, in a casual way. At that time, Ouspensky was a mathematician of world repute and Gurdjieff was just a simple man. Some energy in Gurdjieff prompted Ouspensky to go up to him. He said, 'I feel that you know something that I do not know; can you teach me?'

Gurdjieff replied, 'You are the author of the wonderful book Pentium Organ; what can I teach you?' Ouspensky maintained that Gurdjieff had something that he could teach him.

Gurdjieff asked him to go to the next room and make a list of all the things he knew and did not know so that he, Gurdjieff, could teach him the things he did not know. With a pen in hand, Ouspensky tried to make a list of the things he knew, but could not make the list no matter how long or how hard he tried. He then realized that all his knowledge was only superficial and that he needed to search for a master.

As long as you believe the illusion that you know everything, you are in great danger. That is the reason you do not search for a master or spiritual teachings. If a man does not have a quest for even spiritual teachings, you can be sure that he does not even know that he does not know. That shows that he is in darkness without even knowing that he is in darkness. If you have had a glimpse of light at least once, then you will know that you are in darkness. If you have not had even this glimpse, you will not even know that you are in darkness. A small story:

A man who was born blind went to a doctor and asked him if he could help him gain vision. The doctor examined him and said he would do an operation to give him vision and that he would be able to walk without his stick.

The blind man replied, 'Doctor, I understand two things. I understand that you will perform an operation. I understand that I will be able to see. But I do not understand how I will be able to walk without a stick!'

All his life he had used a stick to walk; he thought that the stick was related to walking itself and he could not understand how he would be able to walk without a stick. The doctor said, 'When you get your vision, you will understand.'

Similarly, only when you get a glimpse of light will you understand what type of darkness you are in. You will then start searching for a master or spiritual teachings.

When all the great masters are divine manifestations, why is it that you get attracted to a particular master?

Ramakrishna gives a beautiful example. The mother cooks the same fish in ten different ways for ten children. One she makes sweet, another is hot and spicy, yet another is fried. She cooks it in ten different ways to satisfy the taste and expectations of all her children. Actually, we each have our own mind set, our own expectations. The divine fulfills you in the way you want it. If you are well read, if you are intellectual, Shankara will appeal to you! If you have a passion for music and dance, Meera or Chaitanya who expressed through music and dance will appeal to you! The intellectual type may find singing and dancing foolish. Similarly, a man who is attracted to the ecstatic love of Meera and Chaitanya will think that it is a waste of time to sit and analyze intellectually all the time!

The person whose head is more dominant will be attracted towards intellectual avenues; the person who is heart oriented will be attracted towards devotional avenues and the one who is being oriented will be attracted towards meditation. There are so many paths and so many masters; each person is centered on a different energy. The person who constantly thinks is on the path of gnana yoga - the path of knowledge; the person who is centered on emotions is a bhakti yogi - following the path of devotion; for the person who is being oriented, who is silent and introverted, meditation is the path. So a person is attracted to the philosophy and the master based on his or her individual energy or mind set.

When you find the right master, something will suddenly happen between you and Him: a synchronicity; almost like falling in love! Actually, something more than that which cannot be expressed in words. It is not even falling in love, it is rising in love! With ordinary people, it is falling in love, but with the master, it can only be rising in love! You will find that he is expressing what you think, what you always wanted to hear. You will find that your heart falls in tune with him. So until this happens, continue the search. That is the right way and the only way of seeking.

Are we qualified to seek?

Ramana Maharishi answers this question beautifully by asking, Are you alive?' (Questioner responds, 'yes') That itself is the qualification! That is the qualification because life itself has been bestowed on you by the Divine. So that is more than enough to receive divine grace. Nothing more is required; the rest will be taken care of by the Divine.

The questioner asks about two masters, naming them.

Here is a question mentioning the names of two masters in Bharat. What is the difference between them and what is the similarity?

Our mind is such that we always analyze for differences, similarities and what not. Masters are beyond our minds. When we try to analyze them, we always fail and fall. We can compare two objects. We can see what the similarities and the differences between two objects are, for example, these two vases. You can see the size, shape, front view, back view - everything about them. But in the case of masters, they are infinity; they are in an infinite dimension! How is it possible to see what the similarities and differences are between two infinities? The similarities and differences between two masters are the same as that between two infinities, that's all!

Yesterday you said that the difference between a disincarnate guru and a live guru was that a live guru can point you upwards. But nowadays there are so many gurus with such a large following that you can hardly have any contact with them. But a disincarnate guru may be able to guide you through dreams. Could you talk about this?

Yes, this is a major problem that modern day seekers face. Before I answer, I have to confess: here at least you get a chance to question me. You can find out from devotees in Bharat how many people attend my programs there; forty or fifty thousand! I am myself not able to give them the opportunity to pose questions or even to come close! But let me explain it to you.

With live masters, whether they have a big following or a small following, whether you have close proximity to them or not, people have experienced that whatever thought or doubt they have in their mind is cleared by the master in some way or the other. Whenever the question is sincere, whenever it is a quest, you will find that the living master answers it in some way that will surprise you! The living master will guide you. This is more of a possibility with a living master than with a disincarnate master.

It is not impossible with a disincarnate master; it is possible; but we have forgotten the language in which they speak! Their language is too subtle. We need to drop our inner chattering in order to hear them. With a live master like me, you have a loudspeaker! So even if you have inner chatter, I can be louder than that! But disincarnate masters talk through a very subtle language. Be very clear, they are all the time talking to us. We can even call it communion. The problem is that it has become one-sided. We have forgotten how to listen to them; we have forgotten the language in which they speak. They speak in the language of silence. And we do not know that language.

You may know many other languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, but not the language of Silence. Even when I say the word silence, you refer to the Oxford dictionary! The meaning given there is soundlessness. But that is not the meaning I want to convey. What I mean is a vibrant, live energy that is silent! You are not able to relate in that language. With a living master, you can understand what he has to say because he uses the language that you know. So the possibility of a living master being able to guide you is more than that of a disincarnate master.

Another problem is that with disincarnate masters you can always project your own ego and satisfy yourself. With a living master this is not possible as he continuously knocks your ego and destroys it.

How do you explain the phenomenon of individuals conveying God's words?

'Telepathy', 'I get the command': all these are an expression of our ego most of the time. Our own ego plays a double role. You speak for yourself and for Him also! You stand in front of the statue and pray to God, 'O God, give me your blessings!' And then you stand behind the statue and say, 'My son, I bless you!'

Most of the time, it is your intellect that plays both the roles. Sometimes, when you are too intense, you can even become schizophrenic! In Bharat, this is what happens when some people start acting like God. They even start showing some special powers. They get into a hysterical state and start predicting the future. It seems as though God has descended on them. They are even worshipped. If God descends on a person, you will see only joy and bliss on their face. But these intuitive fortune tellers always appear to be tense and suffering. They are restless, agitated and keep shouting and creating strange noises. Such expressions can never be God.

When God descends, it is so beautiful, so ecstatic and blissful, because God is filled with love and energy. He radiates this love and energy. He radiates compassion, never restlessness. So don't cheat yourself; that is the only warning. Otherwise you can continue in any path that you choose.

Lifestyle Is Not Life

Lifestyle is all about the quantity of things that we possess. Life is all about the quality of our consciousness.

Lifestyle is related to the way in which we live, talk, dress, behave, earn our money and spend our money. All these are related to worldly life and are part of our life style. But life is much deeper than lifestyle. We are so caught up with our lifestyle, working so hard for our material needs that we forget that we have a life in addition to our lifestyle! We measure our life by our bank balance. Especially in today's world, we can get any service for money. There is nothing we cannot buy with money; so our entire life is reduced to monetary transactions. People start to believe that their whole being is nothing but their lifestyle. Many people come to me and tell me that whatever there was to achieve, they have already achieved, yet they feel dissatisfied. This is because they have achieved everything they want in their lifestyle, but not in their life. Life is not lifestyle, and lifestyle is not life.

When concerning ourselves with lifestyle, outwardly things are enough. But to achieve quality in life, we need more awareness and consciousness. In school, college and university, they teach us how to achieve a better lifestyle, but nowhere do they teach how to achieve a better life! The quality of our consciousness is never increased or supported by the so called education today. There lies the problem.

All our energy is spent and drained for the sake of a lifestyle. People are worried more about their name or their outward appearance. They have forgotten their 'being' which is the most important aspect of life. Lifestyle is all about getting a bigger and better bed, while life is about the quality of our sleep. In our pursuit of increasing the depth and quality of our bed we forget to increase the depth and quality of our sleep!

LIFESTYLE IS NOT LIFE

Why are we so concerned with lifestyle? Because we know nothing about life, we give so much importance to lifestyle. Lifestyle is a poor substitute for life. When I say lifestyle, I don't refer to worldly life alone. It is applicable to spiritual life as well. In the spiritual world, lifestyle refers to rituals. If too much importance is given to rituals and if we are too engrossed in them, we again miss the whole point of spirituality. In anything, the way we do it is lifestyle, but from where we do it, is life. When we do things from our being, with a complete understanding of life, then our lifestyle can be anything. It doesn't matter.

A small story:

Mullah Naseerudin was well known for his memory, or for the lack of it. He could never remember anything for long.

One day, he wanted to do three things when he got home. So, he tied three knots in his handkerchief to remind himself.

Once he got home, he did two of the things he had wanted to do, but he just could not remember what the third thing was! No matter how hard he tried to recollect, he could not remember. He sat up the whole night trying to figure out the third item on his list.

Early in the morning he suddenly remembered what the third item on his list was; he had planned to get a good night's sleep!

This is what happens when we are caught up with lifestyle; we simply miss life.

There are seven planes in which we lead our life. Recently I was reading a book about Hollywood movies. The author had conducted some research and found that all Hollywood movie stories could be classified into seven categories and each of these categories corresponded with the seven major emotions in us that are sex, worry, fear, attention-need, jealousy, ego and discontent. All stories are only adaptations or variations of these seven emotional scripts. I was surprised to see that the seven emotions listed were identical to the seven emotional states defined by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras! Patanjali was a great saint of ancient Bharat considered to be the father of Yoga. In our Life Bliss Program (LBP), we speak of these same seven emotions relating them to the seven chakras or energy centers in our body. Five thousand years ago Patanjali said that there are only seven major emotions with which we relate to the world. These are the seven planes that I referred to.

In Hindu mythology, they refer to the seven lokas or worlds. These seven worlds don't really exist on the physical plane. They are only seven different ways of looking at the same world. When we wear green lenses, everything around us appears green. When we are centered on a particular emotion, we view the world through that particular emotion.

The first plane is that of sex. This is the space or plane from which we are born. On this plane, our lifestyle is filled with imagination and fantasy. If we are centered on this emotion, in any relationship, we will continuously feel that our partner has cheated us. The other person never cheats us; it is we who project our imagination and cheat ourselves. When we say we are looking for a life partner, we are actually looking for a dream partner. We are searching for a screen on which we can project our dreams and feel fulfilled. We are looking for a lifestyle partner not a life partner. So when we search for the partner we are constantly thinking, 'When I go to a party, I should have a partner who will glorify my lifestyle!' A life partner is one who is one with our being, our consciousness.

Life is energy; it is an expression of our inner consciousness; it is living in a way that gives us total satisfaction and fulfillment.

A small story from Einstein's life will explain this very well.

On his deathbed, Einstein was asked by a colleague what he would like to be in his next birth. Towards the end of his life, Einstein had become more of a mystic than a scientist. He had started believing in rebirth even though he was Jewish.

So to his colleague's question he responded that he would like to be reborn as a plumber. The colleague was surprised. Einstein told him that whatever there was to achieve in the outer world - money, name, fame and respect - he had achieved. He gave great truths to people. However his own life had become a lie. In his younger days he had wanted to be a plumber, but became a famous scientist instead. He had reached the top but did not know why he was there.

Einstein said, 'I discovered the greatest truth of the century for humanity, but my life has become a lie!'

If he had become a plumber, he would not have received any recognition, he would not have achieved a great lifestyle but he would have achieved the deep satisfaction of life itself. When life gives such deep satisfaction and fulfillment, one would not bother about lifestyle.

Lifestyle is related to our conditioning. If we are taught by models or actors that wearing jeans is necessary to a certain lifestyle, we will copy it. If we are shown that something else is in fashion, we copy that immediately. So lifestyle is the conditioning given to us by society. Lifestyle is societal but life is natural. Lifestyle is superficial, only skin deep, but life is the core of our being. If we keep in touch with our being, even our lifestyle will be more satisfying. Whatever style we may live in, we will be happy. But we always run after lifestyle thinking that it will give us happiness. Problems in life can never be set right by changing our lifestyle.

In my courses I ask, 'What is worry?' People always give me reasons for worry, instead of an explanation of what worry really is. If we work on reasons for worry, there is no end to it. Only if we work on the subjective experience of worrying, will we get rid of it. When we have a problem, and if we work on our lifestyle, it will never help. We need to work on life itself; create more awareness and consciousness. We can never relax if we work on lifestyle alone. If we do that, we will be able to relax only when we reach our grave. Even in the graveyard we will still be worrying about the kind of tombstone that should be erected over our grave! I hear that people here in America buy plots for their own burial while they are still alive. I believe plots overlooking the ocean are more expensive! When we are only bothered about lifestyle, naturally we keep running continuously, till we fall into our grave.