1. isbn 978-0-9790806-8-5

From Ignorance To Enlightenment

Nithyananda

Talks on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

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Nithyananda

Talks on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

Nithyananda....

Born in Thiruvannamalai in Tamilnadu, South India on 1st January 1978, Nithyananda is a self realized Master. Starting out at a young age, and enduring years of intense penance, He persevered with the single-pointed vision of realizing the Ultimate Truth. He traversed the length and breadth of the country studying with great Masters in India and Nepal. At the age of 22, He experienced the final flowering of Consciousness, when He entered into the state of Ultimate Bliss or Nithya Ananda.

Swamiji's mission is to help each individual actualize his inherent potential. With a pragmatic and compassionate approach, and an enlightened insight into the core of human nature, Swamiji continues to touch and transform the lives of millions across the world.

Swamiji's Divine healing touch has taken the shape of Ananda Healing – a scientific system of spiritual healing. He heals people the world over, through His direct touch and through his ordained Ananda healers, curing illnesses ranging

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from migraine to cancer.

The Nithyananda Foundation is His worldwide movement for meditation. With its spiritual nerve center ‘Dhyanapeetam’ in Bidadi (Bangalore, India) and the Western Hemisphere headquarters in Los Angeles, USA, it operates in over 800 centers in 20 countries across the world, working steadily in transformation of humanity through transformation of the individual.

Swamiji's lucid explanation of practical issues and simple and dynamic meditation techniques, help individuals blossom at the Physical, Emotional and Spiritual levels. Thousands of volunteers – Ananda Sevaks work to support the mission world over.

By offering Himself as a living laboratory, Swamiji works with Scientists across the globe to bridge the modern Western system of Logic and Evidence and the ancient Eastern system of Mysticism, thus bridging Science and Spirituality

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pure emotion and appeal to the heart as they emanated from the heart.

Finally came the Sutras, the techniques that reveal the mystery of this timeless truth that we too are divine. Sutras help the common person to reach out to this truth and see for himself; Sutras lead to enlightenment.

Amongst the greatest of all Sutras are those of the great sage Patanjali, who lived several thousand years ago. His instructions on the techniques of how to reach the divine led to the science of Yoga. Yoga means Union, union of the Self with the Divine, Atman with the Brahman, and his book of sutras is the path that leads to the realization of the Truth.

In the pages that follow a living enlightened master, Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda, speaks of Patanjali and his Sutras, in a manner that makes understanding a lot easier for today’s conditions. In addition, He talks on related topics that help towards the same truth that Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras lead to.

Lead Me

Was it several thousands years ago

Said the Sage from the forest to

Boys who sat below and listened intently

Be sure what you desire since

Desire shapes your will and

Will your actions

Actions your future and

What you are and will be

Said the boys to Yajnavalka, Master

Lead us from illusion to Truth

From darkness to Light

Death to Cosmic freedom

Show us the way so we can follow

I too searched for the Master who

Trod the sacred path lit by

His glow of wisdom that even

I half blind can follow

And then I found Him

A lad under a banyan tree

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

Patanjali, Scientist Extraordinaire

We shall talk today about an extraordinary scientist, a real scientist of the inner world. His name is Patanjali, a great enlightened master of ancient India. We remember him for his great book, the book of books, and the root for millions of books. He created a formula and aphorism for spiritual philosophy.

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

Devotional literature is equally fruitless. It's very easy to love a person in front of you. You can love god, but not your wife and neighbor. Your love of God is all unfulfilled fantasies. You may feel hurt. Please understand that to most of you God is only a concept. How can you love a concept that you do not even know.

Patanjali from the first word says let us look for truth. Would other literature provide you life solutions? Or are they just entertainment, passing time? You can sing song praising God and spend time. There are millions of songs praising God. In olden days as there was no TV or movies this was good entertainment; something more than philosophy, food for intellect, brain candy and devotional literature is good, but not for the ultimate experience or experiencing reality.

Patanjail's book is called Yoga Sutra: Aphorisms to achieve union with the ultimate energy. His sutras or aphorisms

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people, Being level people, men, women etc. There is a book by the name 'Men are from Mars Women are from Venus'. Someone said that this is not correct; they can not be from same universe since the distance between them is too large. Here is a Master who provided techniques to open all doors to all people; Patanjali says these promises are for the whole world.

I was travelling with a Professor on Comparative Religions. I asked him for percentages of different religious groups in the United States. He asked do you want published figures or real figures of those who practice these religious sincerely. These two figures are very different, he said. When I studied statistics at least 25% of all Americans have practiced one form of Yoga or another. At least 10% practice regularly.

Edison discovered light. Once discovered it belonged to the whole world. Patanjali discovered the truth of inner light and made it available to the whole world.

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poorna, Buddha says sunya. I said what they say is the same, their experiences are the same, but copyrights are different. A yoga magazine talked about super deluxe Kundalini Yoga. I wondered, where does this title come from? The guy said that the word is his copyright.

Patanjali says when my teachings are no longer true, this book will die; let it live as long as it is the ultimate truth. I want only truth to survive. If I create an organization, my followers will try for the survival of the organization not the truth. If Krishna and Buddha descend today their temples will not welcome them; it will disturb their vested interests.

This openness is what makes me call him a saintist, a saint and a scientist, a mystic and scientist combined in one. He created this book to understand how to reach the ultimate truth and then is ready to stand by and let his book be replaced if some one else comes up with a greater truth.

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

We still can not add a single word to enhance his sayings. Only a person who is so confident can be so open. It is like a money back guarantee, which is possible only if you have absolute confidence in yourself and what you believe in and say.

We shall go into details of his book over the next few days.

Patanjali has created a navigator to guide us in the spiritual inner world of body, mind and spirit. He has solutions, down to earth and practical, for modern day problems. He is neither a philosopher nor a devotional muse.

There is not one word or one line that can be disputed or disproved. He is an atheist, because he does not say God exists, he just shows you the way, gives you the techniques to realize divinity; but he is not a fanatic. It is easy to be a believer in the divine, because we do not understand creation, who created it and how. To be an atheist you have to disbelieve what you see around you. You have to deny your senses.

You need to be a fanatic.

The first verse of Patanjali is: Yogaha chitta vritti nirodaha. Yoga is the cessation of mind. Where mind drops that is union. When you achieve the ultimate experience mind stops functioning. As long as mind exists you can not experience the union. You will be in dilemma. I always say: Jump before you think, otherwise you will never jump. Mind only creates confusion; it dissects and creates categories. Only when you go beyond mind and logic you can find truth.

There is no gap between you and the divine. You are divine, whether you accept it or not, believe it or not, understand it or not.

A man was told his wife is drowning. He jumped into the river and swam in the opposite direction upstream. People shouted at him asking him: what are you doing. He said you do not know my wife she always goes against the current.

So can you and flounder. When mind stops you experience the divinity within you.

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

The first line gives you the conclusion.

There are many books on how to present. If you wish to get the attention of your audience you have only 30 seconds to inspire them. Even 30 seconds is too much. You already have evaluated and judged the speaker. Based on this decision you keep collecting data on speaker. These books say that right in the beginning you have to make a powerful statement. Patanjali here gives you all in one: the goal is to experience the divine, the path is to stop the mind and the end result is the Union with the divine. The entire book is a commentary and explanation on this one line.

Let us now see how to drop the mind and reach the divine, Patanjali's techniques, teachings and methods.

Q: Some say Patanjali is 10,000 years or is he only 2000 years old?

A: If my disciple writes a book many years after me, it will be under my name.

Similarly many centuries later other disciples wrote following Patanjali. If you study the language used by Patanjali his works are at least 10000 years old. Unfortunately Indians are very weak in history, in happenings; we are strong only in content and philosophy. We do not know for certain, dates of birth of any great master, whether Sankara, Buddha or Krishna. History is called puranas, or truths, not facts; there are important differences. Truth is the impact of the incidents, not the chronological or quantitative facts of human life; they preferred to record those truths rather than the facts.

A man goes with his friend to a mango orchard. The friend was calculating the crop size and money realizable while this man was focusing on eating and enjoying the mangoes. Who is more intelligent?

Now we can identify the period based on the evolution of the language. Patanjali lived in Rameshwaram in South India where

there is a tomb in his name. They can also fix the age based on the tomb structure.

All Patanjali's disciples are called Patanjali, like Sankara's disciples are called Sankara; after a while you forget which disciple he is. An enlightened Master becomes one with the truth; therefore you remember only the truth.

Patanjali had hidden himself so well; nothing except what he wrote is now available. He kept himself away from his own discoveries, the truths. To use electricity you need to know nothing about Edison, all you have to do switch on and off to enjoy the fruits of his discovery.

Modern day psychologists like Freud and others look too small compared to Patanjali. Freud had only sick people to study, not enlightened Masters. He had no chance. After 35 years of research Freud comes to a conclusion that man can not

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

Mind is no longer is-confusion. It will become a guide, a teacher and will lead you to a no mind state. Instead of moving you away from enlightenment, it will pull you inside. Mind exists in its present form because it does not know that there is bliss in the no mind state. Once it knows, it wants you to stay there, as it is so blissful. Mind is a wonderful servant. It will take you wherever it thinks the truth lies. Once it has a glimpse of the blissful state it won't let it go, and will always take you back there.

Patanjali talks about this. How can one dream take you into another dream, or even a dreamless state? He also gives the answer: if you dream of a lion in your dream, you will wake up and come out of that dream.

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From Ignorance to Bliss

From stupidity to wisdom; from human nature to divinity; that is what, Patanjali, one of the greatest scientist sages of ancient India describes in his Yoga Sutras, as an eight fold path to achieve Yoga, union of the Self and the Divine.

We shall now look at one part of the first of the eight fold paths. The first part of the eight parts is called Yama. Yama refers to set of moral injunctions to be followed by any serious spiritual aspirant.

The first part of this eight part system, Yama consists of five elements: Ahimsa (non violence), Brahmacharya (living without fantasy), Satya (truth), Asteya (not stealing), and Aparigraha (living with what one has). Now we shall talk about just Satya, Truth.

Satya is just not truth of the words we utter. That's only one dimension. Thinking the truth and living the truth are the other two dimensions. Vedanta says you create what you want, you are the creator of the whole world; it's you who creates suffering and bliss. If we may ask: if we are the creator of the world why would we create suffering? The reason is that either consciously or unconsciously we are not being true to our Being; we are not living, acting, or speaking the truth.

When some one speaks we do not really listen to him, we do not believe him; we are constantly evaluating him, judging him; and we do not allow the words penetrate

us, because we ourselves do not speak the truth. When it's against our vested interests, against our judgment we stop listening or ask him to stop if he can. In most cases we have already formed a judgment about that person, and we keep collecting arguments to support our preformed judgment.

If we are creators of our own world why do we create suffering? Continuously we create self contradicting desires. At a deep level, whether we accept it or not, believe it or not, understand it or not, we are God. Therefore we create trouble when we contradict our selves and give power to self contradicting thoughts. When we keep thinking of wanting to get rid of a disease, keep saying that I must not have this headache, or stomach ache or cancer, we are already meditating upon that disease; we give power to the word disease through thoughts, through utterance, we implant this word disease in our Being, and the disease will stay on. We can never get

rid of an ache or pain by constantly wishing it to go away. Instead if we say let me be healthy, and if we bring the concept of health to our mind and Being, the ache and pain will disappear. Self contradicting thoughts such as trying to get rid of pain by thinking of pain are called samskaras and these get power and become real.

A person who speaks truth verbally or speaks only of facts is not established in satya. A person can talk facts and still be a liar.

In Mahabharata Krishna wants Drona to be destroyed. Drona is very attached to his son Aswattama. If he hears that Aswattama has died Krishna knows that Drona will give up fighting. Krishna tells Yudhisthtra, the incarnation of Dharma, to say that Aswattama has died. Yudhisthtra first refuses. Krishna makes Bhima kill an elephant called Aswattama and make Yudhisthtra say that Aswattama has died.

They say that till then Yudhisthtra's chariot

which always rode a few inches above ground came down to earth. Yudhishtra stated a fact, but it was not truth.

Being truthful is something more than being factual. First you need to straighten your inner chatter. When an enlightened Master speaks it comes true, because they live in truth. They do not have self contradicting samskaras. These samskaras suck your energy and make you powerless. The word you repeat within yourself should be true. You give power to disease by just saying disease; being factual does not reduce suffering.

A man wants special powers. He goes to a Master and asks for a technique. When an enlightened Master gets special powers it benefits humanity and universe; but ordinary people getting such powers just cause trouble for themselves and others. The master tries to dissuade him. He does not listen. He says if you can not give tell me, I shall go elsewhere.

Ramana says: who says my devotees are followers. At first they follow. Then they do not listen. They want. They lead. Guru is there to do your homework; if he does not, you will leave him.

Francis of Assisi says: God is great because he answers our prayers. He is much greater because most of the time he does not answer many of our prayers.

We know only 120 degrees. Divine knows 360 degrees. God not only has Shakti to give but also the Buddhi to know when to give, or not to give. He makes us stronger by not giving us what we need.

Guru finally relents out of compassion for the stupid disciple. He gives this disciple a medicine and tells him, drink this and it will give you great powers; but do not remember a monkey when you drink the medicine; then it'll not have any effect. The disciple says that's fine, but what if I do think of a monkey. Master says you must

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truth. You can always express truth politely, acceptably without hurting some one; only then it is truth. Pure truth can never be violent, can never hurt some one. At best it will be like a Doctor using a knife to clear some one of a problem, and not like a killer using a knife to harm some one.

Living Satya, living Truth in your life, through your body is essential. Einstein was on his death bed. All his disciples were around him. One asked what would you like to be when reborn, since he knew that Einstein believed in reincarnation. Einstein said: I would like to be born a plumber. They were shocked as they expected him to say many other great things. They asked why. He said: all my life I wanted to be a plumber. Environment made a scientist and I could not stop running the rat race. Whatever society gave me, money, status, and fame, all this is a big failure. I did not live my life. My life became a lie.

When the spirit takes birth again and again, it does that based on your desires. If all your

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मूढ जही हि धनागमतृष्णां कुरु सद्बुद्धिं मनसि वितृष्णां । यल्लभसे निजकर्मोपात्तं वित्तं तेन विनोदय चित्तं ॥

mudha jahihi dhanagamatrushnam kuru sadbuddhim manasi vitrushnam yal-labhase nijakarmopattam vittam tena vinodaya cittam

O fool! Cast off the desire for accumulation of wealth; create in the mind, thoughts about Reality, devoid of passion. What ever you get, what you have achieved through your past deeds, with that, satisfy your mind.

Bhaja Govindam 2

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

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Patanjali was a great mystic, a saintist, saint and scientist. He wrote the aphorisms of Yoga. Yoga is union; union of man with God. He laid down eight points to achieve this union, to reach divine consciousness.

Some one asked: all the techniques are practiced only by the mind, which you say is a dream. How can one dream awaken another dream? When you see a lion chasing you in a dream, you wake up. Any thing that inspires deep fear or greed will wake you up; nightmare or fantasy. All Patanjali does is add something to your dreams to wake you up.

Zen story: Disciple asks the master how I can be awakened. Master responds: slap your face, you will wake up.

Patanjali teaches us eight methods to slap ourselves and wake up. The more you practice these eight steps the more the clarity that descends on you. I have not seen any other Master speaking so clearly

with such perfection in such a straight forward way. He is a scientist, saying 2 plus 2 is 4. Mystics don't speak that way. 2 plus 2 to them may be 4, may not be 4. A plus B may be C or D. if that does not come, wait, may be you did not write A or B clearly. Patanjali guarantees; he is so confident of his product; only he can use money back guarantee offers. In other systems, you may understand 50, 60 or 70 %, here you will get 110%; for past, present and future minds, not just your present mind alone now.

We use pesticides; if we use them continuously the pests get immune and even start using the pesticides as nutrient food to grow upon; so you need to increase the strength and vary the pesticide. Same way our mind learns the art of surviving masters. We all have survived Buddhas, Christs, Krishnas; we have survived the masters since our minds are cunning. Patanjali has created a system that can not be escaped; it's perfect; you

have to get enlightened if you follow him. He has inspired more masters than any one else.

The first step is Yama, loosely translated as discipline. This means turning yourself to the ultimate; it is not a set of dos and don'ts. It is a set of instructions to tune yourself to your Self. Within this Yama are: first is Ahimsa, non violence with understanding; Ahimsa is not a moral condition but a technique.

No morality can be practiced. Morality is great to give as advice, not for practicing yourself; which is good; otherwise you will all become schizophrenics. If you understand and practice Yama you will automatically fall in tune with your higher Self. There is no need to fear heaven or hell. Morality practiced to soothe your conscience is just skin deep, to awaken either fear or greed to make you comply. Morality should be based on consciousness. Otherwise you need cops to enforce moral

rules; as soon as cops are out of sight you indulge. Breaking any law gives you pleasure. Kids feel they are grown up when they can say no. If you understand then you will not need to violate. All the violence, all the depression, all the sufferings on planet Earth are because of social and moral rules imposed on us.

You do not commit sins and go to hell. You commit sins because you are in hell. If you are relaxed and happy with yourself you will never be violent and commit sins. Only when you are restless, not at ease with yourself, you feel it necessary to find faults with others and commit violence. You do good things because you are in heaven not the other way around. There is no exchange counter between this world and the next; if you do charity you get no pass to heaven. Do charity for the joy it gives you; that's the heaven on earth when you are still alive. There will be no one at the pearly gates waiting for you with a golden key.

If you are established in non violence, even wild animals, if they face you, will turn peaceful. You will radiate love and compassion. Patanjali says: If a man is established in non violence, in his presence, enemies and animals will drop their animosity and radiate love.

Sankara, the great enlightened master, walked all over India on foot, village to village, begged door to door for food, and lived with the common man, to update himself with what was happening around him. This was required of him as a teacher, as a master. As he went he learnt from various masters, universities, and temples which are spiritual universities. He wanted to create his own University to spread his message of Advaita, where the energy of love will speak. In a forest on a full moon night as it drizzled he saw a frog about to hatch its baby and a cobra spreading its hood to protect the frog from the rain: frogs and cobras are born as natural enemies; when Sankara saw this he

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not, the whole Universe responds to your thoughts. After my enlightenment I was relaxing in front of a cave, sitting with my self. A few feet away a big Cobra was lying. I was not even aware of it though my eyes were open; my mind was not linked to my senses. After some time I woke up to what was around me.

You come back to reality after sometime. Suddenly the thought of the cobra entered my mind. Only then the cobra realized I was a man. Till then both were comfortable with each other. The next thought was fear. This was reflected in the cobra as well and it raised its head. When I moved back, it moved away.

When we are established in love nothing touches us. We do not need to defend ourselves against anything. Defending is what creates the thought of offending. All countries say that they have armies only to defend themselves. Who then is offending? The more you try to defend

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religion is great etc. Why not come out and say I am great instead of in a round about way? We always think we are extraordinary. When we live in an ordinary we way we become extraordinary.

Some one came to me and asked, Swami, am I enlightened? I have a doubt. I said, as long as you have a doubt be very clear you are not enlightened. The moment you are enlightened, not only will you never have a doubt about it, nor will you even think that you are enlightened. You will not even remember you are enlightened. You don't continuously go on thinking who you are and keep repeating your name. People worship dead masters about whom stories are spun as to how special they are. You do not see anything extraordinary about living masters. We live as you do. I also have rest rooms. No dead master's life talks about his rest rooms. Only their peak experiences are recorded. Their miracles are archived. Enlightened masters radiate ordinariness.

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Brahmacharya is accepting reality as it is. When you drop your fantasies and accept your beloved for what she is, your life becomes heaven. If you live with your fantasies, you will be uncomfortable with your real wife, and the same will happen to every one you meet and choose.

The idea of beauty is just an idea. As long as distance is maintained things look beautiful. Close ups are always ugly and flat. Even if you marry the Miss Universe the idea of beauty will not last more than 15 days. The moment you start living together reality comes in. That's why you call it honey moon, not honey sun. When you drop your fantasies you can live with reality for ever. That's why in Sanskrit there is no word for divorce. If you feed your fantasies you can change your partner any number of times and still be unhappy. Only in fairy tales do people live happily for ever. Dropping your fantasies is brahmacharya. Outer world can not disturb you or feed you fantasies; only inner fantasies can.

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

spirit. That's why people fight in the name of God. Jesus says love thy neighbor as you love yourself. Krishna says see me in everybody. Religious zealots follow the letter not the spirit of what their masters said. People who talk about peace say that they want you to be in peace in the manner that they wish.

A preacher, lawyer and Doctor were in discussion. Doctor said that God must have been a doctor because he made Eve from Adam's ribs. Lawyer said no he was a lawyer because he was passing judgment. Preacher said no, there was chaos first, and who else but a preacher can create chaos. Rama called his capital Ayodhya, which means it is a place without strife. Today it's a city strife torn in the name of Rama.

An enlightened Master lived on the banks of Ganges. He used to read the Bhagavad Gita which was the only possession he had, It had become his life. One day a poor

man begged him saying he had not eaten. The master was deeply moved that someone was begging from him, who had nothing. He gave the beggar his book and told the beggar to sell the book in the market place where one of his followers may buy it and give him money. Beggar took the book away. The next morning Master prayed: God, I gave away your words to keep your word. Legend says that God appeared to him and blessed him, as one who believed in the spirit not just the letter.

There is so much corruption because we think Satya is factual, not truthful. You have to live the truth by living through your body language. You have to think, speak and express the truth in your life. You have to observe all these 3 dimensions to be in Satya.

The other two aspects of Yama are Astheya and Aparigraha. Astheya refers to non covetousness; not desiring what

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The second limb of the eight limbs of the Yoga path that Patanjali describes is the Niyama, the set of rules that he enjoins us to practice daily in our personal lives. Yama refers to discipline as it relates to our interaction with others, whereas niyama refers to discipline within our own mind body system. In the Patanjali Sutras five such rules are referred to under the path of niyama.

Saucha or cleanliness refers to cleanliness of body and mind, both through regular physical cleansing of the body parts, and the inner cleansing of our minds through other practices referred to later on such as pranayama and asanas.

Santosha is being happy with what we are given, to accept things as they are rather than wanting them to be as we expect them to be. It is the mindset of renouncing what we do not have, and not needing to renounce what we already have, in the hope of seeking something better.

Ultimately this attitude of acceptance leads to surrender and enlightenment. With an attitude of santosha there will never be depression and there will always be peace of mind. With it there is always the attitude that the Universe will provide for us what ever is best.

Tapas, the next niyama, is commonly translated as penance, though rightly it is self restraint in controlling all urges, born out of body and mind. This refers to restraints in desires of the mind and actions of the body, controlling lust, anger and greed as well as sensory functions including eating. Tapas leads to a healthy body and a healthy mind.

Svadhaya, the fourth niyama, is self enquiry and a search of the inner self. Directing the mind inwards automatically controls the mind. Looking inwards makes it easier to understand and reach the ultimate truth that we are one with the Universe. While the study of the Sastras

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

deeper level, Hatha yoga refers to the integration of mind body, allowing one to become aware of the flow of prana or energy in our body system. Hatha yoga asanas when performed with awareness lead to awareness of one's emotions and can help clear blocks leading to a greater awareness in one's action in day to day life.

Hatha Yoga exercises provide physical fitness and flexibility at one level; when done regularly and with awareness they also enhance emotional fitness and flexibility. Patanjali says: Infinite flexibility is the secret to immortality. Like the Tao, Hatha Yoga promotes flexibility to counter stresses of life, mental and physical.

Popularity of various forms of Yoga, all derived from the original Sutra's of Patanjali, have made this one of the most popular forms of physical exercises and raised Yoga to a cult level. Practiced without awareness and focused merely on the body instead of mind body, as in the

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calm and collected, breath too is calm and collected. When mind is turbulent, breathing becomes disordered. Prana is the life energy that flows throughout nature and the universe. When we are tuned in to the pranic energy of our body, we become aware of the integral relationship between our individual self and the universal Self. Pranayama helps us into this awareness of the union of self and Self.

Prana connects our physical and astral bodies. When Prana is cut off, the astral body separates from the physical body. Death is the result. The Prana that was working in the physical body is withdrawn into the astral body.

Prana is the universal principle of energy or force. It is vital force. Prana is all-pervading. It may be either in a static or dynamic state. It is found in all forms, from the lowest to the highest, from the ant to the elephant, from the unicellular amoeba to a man, from the elementary form of plant life to the

developed form of animal life. It is Prana that shines in your eyes. It is through the power of Prana that the ear hears, the eye sees, the skin feels, the tongue tastes, the nose smells, the brain and the intellect perform their respective functions. The smile on the face of a young lady, the melody in music, the power in the emphatic utterances of an orator, the charm in the words of one's own beloved wife—all these and many more have their origin in Prana. Fire burns through Prana. Wind blows through Prana. Rivers flow through Prana. The steamer and the plane, the train and the car move about only through the power of Prana. Radio waves travel through Prana. Prana is electron. Prana is proton. Prana is force. Prana is magnetism. Prana is electricity. It is Prana that pumps blood from the heart into the arteries. It is Prana again that does digestion, excretion and secretion.

Prana is expended by thinking, willing, acting, moving, talking, writing and all such activities. A strong and healthy man has an

abundance of Prana or nerve-force or vitality. The Prana is supplied by food, water, air, solar energy, etc. The supply of Prana is received by the nervous system. The Prana is absorbed in breathing. The excess of Prana is stored up in the brain and nerve centers.

A Yogi stores up enough and more of Prana by regular practice of Pranayama just as the storage battery stores up electricity. That Yogi who has in his store an amazingly large supply of Prana radiates strength and vitality all around. He is a big power house. Those who come in contact with him imbibe Prana from him, and get strength, vigor, vitality and exhilaration of spirits. Just as oil flows from one vessel to another, Prana also actually flows steadily from a developed Yogi towards weak persons. This can be seen actually by the Yogi who has developed his inner Yogic vision.

If you can control the breath or Prana, the mind is also easily controlled. He who has controlled his mind has also controlled his

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जटिलो मुण्डी लुञ्चितकेशः कापायांबरवहुकृतवेषः । पश्यन्नपि च पश्यति मूढः ह्युदरनिमित्तं वहुकृतवेषः ॥

jatilo mundi lunchitakeshah kashyámbarabahukrutaveshah pasyannapi ca na pasyati müdaha hyundaranimittam bahukrutaveshaha

The ascetic with matted lock, the one with his head shaven, the one with hairs pulled out one by one, the one who disguises himself variously with the ochre-coloured robes - such a one is a fool who, though capable of seeing, does not see. Indeed, this varied disguise is for the sake of the belly.

Bhaja Govindam 14

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

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Instinct Intelligence Intuition

Let us see how our mind works, and how we work through our minds from three different levels of instinct, intelligence and intuition.

As long as all your decisions are conscious and you are aware why and how you are doing something, why you are thinking this way, you are in the intelligence level. If you are not aware and conscious of your thought process and feel guilty about your actions you are at instinct level. If you are doing or not, and yet you are continuously at blissful level you are at intuition level.

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How do we process information? When we see something, we perceive the object through the energy controlling our eyes, called chaksu, which is a digital signal processor. The digital file goes to our memory, called chitta, and from there to our mind, manas. The file then takes a leap into our ego, ahankara.

Chitta, our memory, decides what the information is not, to arrive at what it is. For instance, what I see is not a plant, not an animal etc, na iti, na iti, to decide what it is. Manas, our mind later comes into the picture and says this is a man who is conducting a class; it identifies the object as a man. Then the digital file, already processed my memory and mind, leaps into the ego, which based on past experiences decides whether to sit in the class or to go out.

Ego decides and you express and act on that decision. This zone of ego is not under your control. Ego is a collection of

impressions, past memories, or samskaras. These samskaras force you to take illogical, unconscious decisions. You decide to smoke knowing logically fully well that it is bad for health. You still go ahead. You have no control. Samskaras come up and confuse you, depress you, disturb you, stress you; they can change the whole course of your life. They can create conflicts and suffering. Samskaras are the sub conscious layer of our mind.

Let us say that the time taken for the digital file to travel from our eye energy to mind, through memory, is Tp. Till this point the process is logical and clear. Time taken for unconscious process, mind to ego, through samskaras, which distort your file and twist your decisions is Tq. As long as Tp is more than Tq you will be more aware of your unconscious. If not, you are unaware and act on instinct. You are restless. You decide without knowing what you are doing. When the samskaras are more, and they move faster without your

knowledge, you are in trouble. If time taken for conscious process is more than the time taken for the unconscious, if Tq is greater than Tp, you act instinctively. If Tp equals Tq, you are in Intelligence level. You will live your life without guilt. When Tp is greater than Tq, you are in super conscious level; your unconscious is infused with silence and intuition.

In Patanjali's Yoga system, the fifth limb Pratyahara works on taking your mind from all outward objects. Ahara is food and pratyahara is moving away from that food. This ahara, the food, is taken in not only from your mouth but also from all 5 senses energizing your memory. Pratyahara is moving away from ahara. If you stop this intake of sensory food, memory is given a rest.

Dharana, the sixth limb of Patanjali Yoga, is about focusing on one subject only. Then mind rests. Dharana is flow, mind's flow towards one object. The seventh limb of

Patanjali Yoga, Dhyana (being witness) is about infusing consciousness, spirit into your unconscious zone; this is spirituality; then this unconscious zone also rests. These three give rest to memory, mind and unconscious zone. All your samskaras disappear. They are burnt away. Your third eye opens when you start witnessing and your awareness happens, and you realize everything is a dream, and you are out of the dream. This is what the puranas talk about when they talk about Shiva burning Manmata with his third eye. He burnt all his samskaras.

When you infuse consciousness and silence into this unconscious zone you burn all your engrams, you become Shiva, and you reach super conscious level. When Tp is less than Tq you are an animal; if equal you are human; if Tp is greater you are divine.

J Krishnamurthy says: Only once if you can witness your emotions without moving your body, with out support or suppression,

you will see very clearly that the emotion, the samskara, loses power over you. If you support it, it grows. If you suppress it, it leads to perversions.

Why should you follow spirituality? Why follow a Master? If you do not, you follow your samskaras. You become slaves to something far less uplifting.

Infusing silence, bringing thoughtless awareness to your unconscious zone is your ultimate liberation. You become videhi, one who is outside his body even when he is in his body. When you suddenly remember something that disturbs, you create an energy clot; there is less space in your Being. When you meditate on your inner space you expand. That is possible only when you do not have engrams, no energy clots within you, which disturb you.

From a young age you are taught your samskaras. You accumulate them. When you are attracted to something intensely or

hate something intensely you collect files on them. One kind of logic: all men have one head, Socrates is a man; you can conclude Socrates is a man. Another: there are two doors; one door is open, what about the other? You can not say. The second logic is the logic of intelligence. You need to be aware for this logic. Why we collect more and more engrams is because we are not aware, we are not using this logic process.

Q: Are there good engrams?

A: good engrams and bad engrams exist only socially, not in fact; no engram, no samskara is worth maintaining. Start living intuitively, spontaneously. You will be a free soul. You can not be exploited. The whole social structure is based on might is right; it is exploitative. Even a king will be at the feet of an enlightened engram less person. A King can not exist without subjects. An enlightened person exists on his own authority. All chaos is consciously created to keep people in control, to exploit.

Yoga is Chitta vritti nirodaha: thoughts which are created by external inputs and thoughts which are created by samskaras become chitta and need to be eradicated for Yoga. You can not do this unless all samskaras are eliminated.

Q: Change is threatening, what to do?

A: For children, the universe is wonder-filled because they don't have logic. They don't think that this is the same Sun which they saw yesterday. They don't think that this was the same chair which was there yesterday. They don't think that this is the same room which they sat in yesterday.

They know the Truth - the Sun is new, this room is new, this chair is new, I am new, you are also new! You are changing continuously; continuously you are getting updated.

A Western philosopher said, 'You can't step into the same river twice.' Why? Because the moment you put the second step, the water has already flown.

can't step into the same river even once, because the moment you put your feet in, by the time you travel from the water level to the ground level, the water has already moved! You can't put your feet even once in a river; where is the question of twice!

Existence is continuously changing. If you trust that Existence changes and you also change, you can never get settled with your ego. Your ego is nothing but a rigid mechanism, a definite pattern. Only a person who is ego less can trust that the universe is changing and he is also changing. The man who sells his time will never understand that the universe is changing because he is caught in a routine. Not being caught in a routine is a basic discipline for enlightenment!

If you are in a routine, you become so unaware that you stop believing, you stop realizing that Existence is changing. I have seen some government servants working for 30 years in the same office. They would not even have moved their table

from one place to another and eventually forget that their table can be moved! Even in your house, don't live with the same kind of furniture arrangement for years together. Shuffle it so that your mind does not get stuck with a single attitude. Once in a few months, change the order; create a little bit of chaos! Otherwise you will become dead. I have seen people - they will have ten rooms and because of their habit, they will follow a certain track in their own house and as a result would not have stepped foot on eight rooms for months together. How many of you have not gone to the extreme of your own garden in the last two years? This is because you live on a certain track.

The mind feels comfortable if it has got a definite system. That is why rituals are so popular today. Rituals are so complicated and yet people do them with all difficulty, but when they come out of it, nothing would have changed in them. But in meditation, they are not sure of the

outcome. Some personality change may happen. Going into meditation is seen as a risk! People are comfortable seeing Gods in temples because the Gods don't speak; because they don't change your life; but here I will ask you - what are you doing? How is your life? There comes the trouble. Either consciously or unconsciously you might start changing because I am such a solid force and I may start penetrating you.

Be very clear - the most definite thing on planet earth is your tomb, your graveyard! The more you live with definition and security, the more you are dying. That is why, when you live with a definite track in your house, your house will have the vibration of a graveyard. Once in a while, dance in the main hall of your house - the space will be purified. If you live with the same things, you will create a track of memory. You will then have very less access to your own Being. Your mind and your house are one and the same. Your Being and your house are one and the

same. If you don't live in your whole house, be very clear, you are not living with your whole memory. Drop your rigid ego, break free from your mental patterns, understand change and discover the reservoir that you have within yourself. Explode in all directions and realize your unlimited potential!

Q: How to be a leader without ego?

A: When you live with the attitude that you are responsible for everything, your whole life will change. When you take up responsibility for everything that happens around you, you will start expanding.

Expansion is the only growth; contraction is death. The more responsibility you take up, the more you will expand and grow. You will become a leader. Most of us wait for the status to descend on us and then take up the responsibility. Be very clear - Only if we take up the responsibility, the status will come! People who wait for the status will not take up responsibility even

after they get it. They will simply find another reason or excuse, that's all. An ordinary sweeper in an organization who takes up responsibility and performs his tasks can inspire an entire organization into becoming more responsible. The person who passes the buck and relaxes will never progress significantly in life.

Responsibility is Consciousness. The moment you feel responsible for what is happening around you, that moment the Divine Energy will rush into you! These are all basic secrets of Life that I am giving you.

As long as you are self-centered, you will be nothing more than a blocked bamboo stick that serves only to carry the corpse. When you shed your ego and stand up with responsibility, you will become the hollow bamboo that serves as a flute! Like how the air that enters the flute leaves it as music, the air that enters you will flow as Energy! A cognitive shift will happen in you. Your mental setup will change.

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पाणायामं प़त्याहारं नित्यानित्य विवेक विचारं जाप्यसमेत समधिविधानं कुर्वधानं महदवधानं ॥

pranayayam pratyaharam nityanityavivekavicaram, japyasametasamadhividhanam kurvavadhanam mahadavadhanam.

The regulation of breath, the withdrawal of the senses from objects, the inquiry consisting in the discrimination between the eternal and the non-eternal, the method of mind-control associated with the chanting of mantras - perform these with great care.

Bhaja Govindam 30

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

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Yoga Nidra: Sleeping Into Divine

One man a Zen master woke up from bed and started weeping. His disciples were perplexed. Zen masters are unpredictable. Their ways of teaching are mysterious, untraditional. One disciple, a chief disciple, asked the master: why are you weeping?

Master said last night I dreamt that I was a butterfly and flying in the garden. Disciple asked: it was just a dream, why are you crying. Master said: I do not know whether I dreamt that I became a butterfly or whether the butterfly is dreaming now that it is a master with so many disciples.

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in your dreams. Your suppressed anger, hidden fears, violence or sexual desires will come out in dreams. In the unconscious deep sleep or karana sarira state your mind is processing all information you have collected. If you see hundred things you look at only two things, you observe and take in only 2 things consciously. The rest goes into your unconscious.

My driver had been driving me for 6 months between our ashram outside Bangalore to the City Centre and back. I told him one day to go to a place near a mosque. He said he had not seen any mosque where I wanted to go. I explained to him where it was. Still he didn't agree. Finally I took him through each point. He remembered a Hanuman temple, but the mosque which was opposite the temple was at least 5 times bigger. He sees this every day, remembers the small temple but not the much bigger mosque. His Hindu conditioning does not let him consciously record the mosque. His eyes see the mosque but mind does not record it.

All that you see but not record or what your mind thinks is not useful to you goes into the unconscious. What is recorded is based on your mental conditioning. In a house we all live in one place but not together; after honeymoon husband and wife do not live together. They live only with the idea that each one has of the other. Each looks at the other through the mental conditioning one forms of the other and judges through that conditioning. You remember the coffee your wife dropped on you, not all the wonderful meals she cooked for you. It is like reading a 100 page novel you are left with only 2 pages, from which you are made to reconstruct the original novel. Out of 100 observations you record only 2 and judge the other person. How many times do you look into each other's eyes? It is only through the eyes that you see the real person, identify the real person. We are afraid to look into another person's eyes because we want to hide things; we do not want people to

know who we are. We prefer to live with the conditioning, the template, the image and not the real person.

Only one state, one body is under your control, the other two are not. That's why you can not enjoy life. I went to the Universal Studio in LA. Some one asked me: what can you, a Swami, enjoy there?

I said, fool, sanyas is the ultimate luxury a man can have. When you see a rose, whatever you enjoy, I enjoy many times more; because I live with three bodies, while you live with only one. If I ask you to raise your right hand, you all will, because you can control the physical body.

If I ask you to focus on your third eye, can you? You can not because your subtle body is not under your control. You can not sleep whenever you want because that body is not under your control. When I come out in the morning I come out with a lot of written papers. Because the third body is under my control I do not need much time to rest; quantity of sleep can be

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in the olden days, he was trained in spiritual ways. Westerner philosophers say that this is reverse; you should first experience and then you turn spiritual. Eastern mystics say that unless you control all these 3 bodies you can not enjoy life fully. Understand your Being before you enter life. Nectar is not something special you will be given; whatever you are given will taste as nectar. Getting these 3 bodies under control allows you lead life fully, you will see what life is.

Tantra says: Only once a man really enters into a relationship; when he goes beyond the relationship.

What is the fourth state where there is no thought but only I consciousness, the awakened state. Each religion has its own different concepts about how to lead one's life; but they all agree on one thing. Man is asleep, all masters agree. What does this mean, what all masters agree upon? It is very difficult to make all masters agree.

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dreams, but you dream on. You need to understand. All this is not a ritual. People ask me: please tell me how I can worship and love a 18 handed Kali? I say first start loving your 2 handed wife. First understand your life and then you can go into religion. All your love for God is just a fantasy. That's truth. You dream even when you are awake. That's why master say that we are all asleep.

The great Russian Master Gurdjeef had a disciple who asked him how to be enlightened. He taught him a technique and says you must do this for 3 months continuously without leaving this house. The disciple meditates for 3 months. At the end of 3 months his master takes him for a walk into the town. The disciple says I feel everybody here is asleep even though they are doing something. What has happened? Master says nothing has happened to these people, something has happened to you, you are now awakened.

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

In olden days a town crier went around waking people beating a drum and shouting. Such a man in the court Janaka, an enlightened monarch said: wake up not only from your sleep and dreams, wake up from your waking state, your desires, and your mind. He cried: jagrat, jagrat, wake up, wake up.

Masters caution you to wake up even from your awakened state. The state where you do not day dream is the awakened state, the enlightened state, the fourth state, where you are in consciousness but without thoughts, dreams and desires. This is like a sky without any clouds or stars, it is pure space. In this state there is pure consciousness. In Sanskrit it is called turiya or Samadhi.

Some people experience this while meditating in our ASP classes as if you have lost all thoughts but still awake When you reach this state you become Buddha, the awakened one. Ramana says: A man

who is not enlightened is like a man in a dream, going in and out of dreams. Till you are enlightened you do not know what really life is. You see till then what you want to see, not what is. You just pick a few things from reality and claim to see reality. This is what Sankara means when he says the whole world is maya. Maya is that which is not there; that which is not real. You are seeing what is not, that's maya.

When I was 10 I was taken to an enlightened Master called Annamalai Swamigal in my home town. He used to give out candies at the end of his discourses and all the children used to go for the candy. He was saying: every thing is maya. You are the self. You are not affected by pain. You are beyond pain and suffering.

I was excited; went home took a knife and cut myself on my thigh to see if I felt pain. Naturally I felt pain, blood came out, I was

taken to the Doctor for stitches, and my mother beat me. After 2 days I went to this Swamigal and complained. I was bothered because I did not understand what he meant.

Krishna says to Arjuna: Atman can not be killed by weapons, not burned by fire, not wetted by water and so on. Arjuna was cleverer than me. He tested it by killing other people. I tested it on myself.

Annamalai Swamigal said lovingly: son, now you will not understand what I said. I will teach you a meditation technique. Practice it and you will understand. When I said I will find it difficult, he said just try, that's enough. Whenever you have time, sit down and see where your thoughts are coming from, who you are; focus on Who Am I? He asked me who I was. I said I was Rajasakaran and my grand father was a big landlord. He said: ask yourself who is Rajasakaran? Who says that name? I tried. I did not even know it was meditation.

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

Have you seen a single grown up man who is beautiful or graceful? Seriousness makes you ugly. You disrespect your life when you carry a long face. Don’t try to be enlightened in half an hour, like you want to earn a million dollars in one year. You postpone your enlightenment through seriousness. Seriousness is not sincerity. Be sincere but relax. When I say relax, people ask what to do. Doing is natural, but relaxing is unnatural. Don’t ask for another technique to relax. Whatever you understand by relaxation you do. Relax from the idea that you should relax.

नलिनी दल गत जल मतितरलं तदुज्जी वि त मतिशयचपलं । विद्धि व्याध्यभिमानग्रस्तं लोकं शोकहतं च समस्तं ॥

nalinidalagatajalam atitaralam

tadvaj-jivitam aticayacapalam,

viddhi vyadhy-abhimana-grastam

lokam sokahatam ca samastam

The water on the lotus-leaf is very unsteady; so also is life extremely unstable.

Know that the entire world is devoured by disease and conceit, and smitten with sorrow.

Bhaja Govindam 4

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Vasana is the hangover of desires or desires not fully lived; samskaras are desires that are lived but those which leave a thread for continued enjoyment of those desires. Karma is fulfillment. Vasana is the seed, samskara is the nourishment and karma is the tree. Nirvana also means moksha, liberation. When all vasanas, samskaras and karmas are finished you reach liberation through their extinction. You see a new kind of space in you, new kind of understanding in you, new kind of living in you.

When you drink or smoke once in a while you enjoy them. As long as you have the freedom to drop them you enjoy them. When you get addicted to them they enjoy you. Addiction is when you do not enjoy the habit but can not do without it. You can get addicted to food, TV, newspaper, gossiping. When you are addicted, food eats you, cigarettes smoke you, and liquor

drinks you. When you do not have the freedom you are used.

At a subtler level greed and fear are addictions. Greed, at least you may be able to control, but not fear. Greed or fear work on you, pull you further, pull you down, and overcome you.

You are in a mall and see a shoe. The thought, the vasana takes hold of you to acquire it. You move on. After a week or later you see the shoe again. This time the feeling is stronger. Samskara has logic. It tells you that if you get the shoe you can jog and you will be healthy and so on. Vasana is any seed that falls on ground. Samskara connects the vasana to you with logic. If you are spiritually inclined the samskara will tell you that with healthy jogging you can meditate better. Vasana is blown through samskara into an imprint, deep desires. Then you buy the shoe. This is karma.

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If ‘mine’ is too much greater than ‘I’, power to enjoy will be low. Rich people do not enjoy life. Those who have less have far greater capacity to enjoy. A blind man has more sensitivity in his hands. A poor man enjoys his food far more than any one richer. More the quantity of your possessions less is the quality of your life. More of possessions lead to a mental set up that asks for more.

Ramana says: The world has enough for every one’s needs but not to fulfil even one person’s greed. This world is in two groups: one that wants to have, the other that wants to enjoy. You can not do both.

Ramakrishna never blessed any one for material possessions. Once one devotee asked him when he was in deep ecstasy for wealth and Ramakrishna said, yes, you will have wealth, but you will realize what a mistake you have made in asking me for this wealth. The man who asked for

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wealth was a scrap collector. In ten years after this incident he made enough money to start the first Bengali newspaper, Ananda bazaar Patrika. He however had no children. On his deathbed he said now he understood what Ramakrishna said about his regretting his plea for wealth, which he never enjoyed. He gave away all his wealth to Ramakrishna Ashram.

A young man asked me to give him peace of mind. When I asked him why, he said he wanted a gold medal in his exams and wanted peace of mind to do well. I said: the very idea you want a gold medal is to prove something to society. This it self will never let you have peace. So if you want the gold medal forget about peace of mind. When I asked him when he lost his peace of mind, he said it was when he got obsessed with the idea of the gold medal.

I told him: drop the idea of the medal and you will get it.

Someone asked me: you are so young and you do not read. How do you get all this information and how do you remember? If you have the capacity to withdraw from your memory and mind, they work a thousand times more. Unconsciously you know that one day you will disconnect from your mind. Yet you have the urge to connect with your mind. You will live in a dilemma. That's why your memory and mind work on an on off basis. As long as you play a middle game, half and half, you can never enjoy life. You are afraid to engage because you do not know if you can withdraw. Once you realize you can withdraw and relax from you mind, it will become active.

Now your mind is locked into one space, as an engineer, as a Doctor, whatever; you can not touch any other part. All of you are endowed with memory of past life, yet you do not recollect, why; because you are so caught up in this life's memories. If

you can come out of, relax from your mind, you can enter all sections of your mind. You can log in and log out. As of now you can only log in partly since you are afraid to log out.

To log out is Nirvana. To log out of vasanas, samskaras and karmas. Is it possible to log out, walk out? Says Buddha: when you have the capacity to create, don't you have the capacity to walk out?

Mind is the constant inner chatter. It starts as soon as you wake up. If you record all of it you need a tape to record all your waking hours, say 15 hours. All this chatter creates problems unconsciously. You are comparing yourself unfavorably with others. Of these 15 hours tape, all spoken by you, why don't you convert the chatter to give you positivism and freedom? No man is so poor that he can not create words that create bliss. We are not poor in capacity,

only in consciousness. This 15 hour tapes are of our karmic system. 10 hours say I can not, only 5 say I can. Reverse it; let at least 10 hours of tape, chatter create freedom in you to start with. When all 15 hours give you freedom you have reached the dead end of Nirvana.

Unconsciously you invite suffering. When everything is right you look for trouble. A guy living by a train track so used to living by the noise wakes up if he can not hear the sound. You are so habituated to the incessant inner chatter of worry that if it stops you miss it. If your worries are reduced you lose your importance. This world runs not because of us, but in spite of us.

Let us be a little more intelligent and use words that liberate us instead of addicting us. Napoleon on his deathbed told his subordinates: place my hands out in the coffin so that people know that even the

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We all feel life is a curse and is a result of our past karma. Again and again people ask why our life is like this; please teach us a way not to have another birth. You feel life is suffering, punishment, an effect of past karma. There are only two groups in this world, wise and otherwise. The wise ones feel that life is ananda, bliss, that their being is bliss, their consciousness is ananda. Thousands of enlightened masters have said this time and again. When you ask them how, each one offers his own method. One says you be a vegetarian, another says you fast, another says you practice this meditation or that, another says you marry; another says do not marry and so on. If two rishis say the same thing, it is said, one is a fake. Each expresses in his own way the path to enlightenment and bliss. But they all concur that consciousness is bliss. If all agree it means that this fact is essential.

In daily life we find that it is misery, it's a punishment. There is a gap between our

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Said Einstein, the last word of science is the first word of spirituality. The latest findings of science were the first verses of the first Upanishad. He said where science ends spirituality starts. Like there is no gap between matter and energy outside, inside us there is no gap between your body and mind. When you see a difference, body is roga mayam (diseased) and mind is soka mayam (suffering). Spiritual seekers suffer more than ordinary people. Ordinary people identify with their body and mind. Spiritual seekers lose this clarity. They know that they suffer through identification with body and mind, and this increases their suffering. There is one more suffering, how to disconnect, how to reach liberation etc.

What is quantum bliss? Not only are you not body and mind, but there is no need to disconnect from body and mind. There is nothing you need to do. Bliss is continuously happening with in you without gap of time and space. As long as you

associate your bliss with a particular time or a particular space you will lose the bliss. The gap between sufferings becomes bliss for you. As if the gap between two wars becomes peace. In life we seem to experience happiness only in gaps between sufferings; this is just suka, periodic bursts of joy, not eternal bliss.

If you associate pleasure with a particular space, say a fantasy home, you feel happy. Or you associate happiness with an object such as a car or a person who you feel you love, and you feel you are happy. You crave to be around that space, object or person. The moment your unconsciousness feels that association with some one brings you happiness, it takes revenge and initiates a feeling of dislike and hatred. Possession starts, and possession is revenge by owning the object or living being as another object. You reduce energy to matter. Whenever you try to keep someone around you and therefore under

you, your mind moves towards hatred. Your unconsciousness knows that you are getting yourself bound by attachment and desire and takes revenge.

Associating bliss with time leads to suffering. When you try to bring back that time you felt happiness to experience the same happiness, you find somehow that happiness is no longer the same. The joy is lacking. After a few attempts and being unsuccessful you feel depressed and sick. You don't feel the energy of happiness.

When you understand that happiness does not depend on time and space you enter the zone of quantum bliss. When you associate happiness with time and space you stay within boundaries of suffering.

You have a great desire to eat a sweet. When you eat that sweet you feel joy. If you associate that feeling of joy you wish to eat more of that sweet. If you keep eating more and more of it, at one point in

time after some sweets you feel revulsion not joy, you can not eat any more. Your joy is not associated with the sweet. What is it that gave you joy?

When you feel that you are enjoying an object, the moment that object is near you, number of thoughts in your mind reduces, and a feeling of peace and joy expresses itself. You associate this feeling due to the reduced thoughts in your mind, the subject, instead to the object, the sweet. Whenever frequency of thoughts comes down you experience bliss.

Yoga Sutra says that you never experience joy because of something outside; your prana reaches a rhythm that gives you joy. When you get to reproduce this state of prana, energy within, to this rhythm you feel joy. This is pranayama.

Yoga Sutra says that when a person learns how to produce a prana flow to a particular rhythm he is in continuous bliss;

he is liberated from the five senses; he needs no particular space to be happy. This is Pratyahara.

Yoga Sutra says that if a person can maintain this flow continuously he is liberated from time and he is liberated from all outwardly objects. This is Dharana.

You no longer are restricted by time and space to experience bliss.

Scientists are very practical, mystics are poetic. Patanjali is more practical than modern day scientists even though he is a mystic.

Q & A:

Q: Is bliss the same as the movement of prana?

A: Bliss is not movement of prana, but bliss is caused by movement of prana. It's like turning your TV to receive signals. Same way you need to tune your prana to

receive the bliss that is always there. Prana does not create bliss. Proper alignment of prana helps to experience bliss.

Q: When we deal with wordly problems, hundreds of them, can we achieve bliss through pranayama, without solving these problems?

A: wonderful question. Some one asked me: to achieve bliss do I need to give up every thing. I said: just give up what you do not have; there is no need to give up whatever you have.

Suffering is created by desiring what we do not have, through fantasies. You have a hundred problems, how can I be blissful, you ask? Let me ask you, can you solve these problems by suffering. We think that by worrying we can solve problems. Actually more you think, more you worry, you create more problems. 99% of you worries never come true. The 1% that does is good for you.

I asked people to write down all their perceived problems. After 6 months I called them again and asked them to say which of them came true. Less than 30% come true.

If you look around there is continuous intelligence and energy that is there to solve your problems. If you have lived for 50 years and still have problems, in spite of the experience you have, you are just disturbing yourself. You can live another 50 years based on your experience without worrying.

Prana, when regulated, creates bliss, and makes your intelligence work much more powerfully. Research shows that chemicals such as dopamines are released while you are in bliss, with or without reason and you come out of depression and rejuvenate yourself. Bliss provides energy to face and solve problems.

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with your intellect instead of intuition you will still struggle. Drop your intellect.

People come to me for support and consolation, not for solution. I now offer you a permanent solution. I ask: have you felt disturbed that you have lost your toys?

Not now, you do not need them anymore. But when you were 4 or 5 years old you would have seriously suffered. Similarly you can drop all other desires as well.

Q: By being blissful can body be healed and how?

A: Ramana was asked when he was suffering from cancer: do you have suffering? Bhagwan said: I have pain, but no suffering.

When you feel bliss, your mind relaxes and allows your energy to fill your body and mind. When the energy fills you, you get recharged. We have seven energy centers

accepted by many cultures, Sufis, Chinese, early Christians. These are proved by Kirlian photography. Chakras expand 60 to 70 times more with positive emotions. It can predict disease through diminished aura. There are also seven glands in our body that regulate our health. When chakras are disturbed through negative emotions that abuse our chakras they give rise to disease. Fantasies lock the muladhara. Fears lock Swadishtana. Worries lock Manipuraka. When you get shocking news your stomach gets a blow. Anahata chakra is related to love and so on. Uneasiness between you and your chakra causes diseasiness and then disease. When you are blissful your chakras are energized and heal you.

Q: I heard an Upanishad explanation linking cosmos with collective thought?

A: That is upassana. Upassana is worshipping something outside; vipassana is

worshipping inside. I link bliss with vipassana. When you create an ideal and worship it is upassana. If you consider that ideal as a root within and go inside it is vipassana. The idea that you and God are one and the same is a technique; if you say that you and god are different that's also a technique. Both are techniques, not truths. The truth is beyond your understanding now.

Q: Are happiness and bliss different? How can we differentiate? Can one stay in bliss forever? Have you attained blissful state?

A: yes, I have attained blissful state. If bliss is contained between two sufferings it is only happiness. Happiness is momentary, it is fenced in bliss. It is a difference in time not space. Bliss bound in time is happiness. Not all benefits of bliss happen with happiness. If your headache is cured through happiness it can return tomorrow. In bliss it will not.

Man asks two questions, and when I finish answering his first question, he forgets his second question. Arjuna asks Krishna a series of questions. Krishna says you do not want the answer; without getting the first answer you can not ask the next question.

As long as you do not try to hold bliss it will continue. If you hold it, it will only be momentary happiness. It's like keeping your hand in flowing water. If you close your hand the water runs out. If you try to retain bliss it will disappear. Bliss is choicelessness. The moment you choose it will go. Bliss is a process. It's not a noun it's a verb. It happens. If you try to possess it, it will go.

I have experienced bliss. I have created a formula to reproduce that bliss. A scientist creates a formula to reproduce an external phenomenon. A mystic creates a formula to reproduce an inner world phenomenon.

These formulae are meditations. The formula is important not my personality. Drop Nithyananda. Hold onto nithya ananda.

Q: How does the Ananda Spurana Program deliver Bliss?

A: Man stays in the seven chakras. If you are in the lowest level, that is the muladhara chakra, you are caught in lust and desire. You worship a God who can grant all your boons. That is why God is understood as a giver of boons throughout the world and is very popular. People are caught up in fantasy, expectations and desires and whoever fulfils these becomes their God. The moment they miss giving a single boon, the Gods will get dethroned!

Next is the person who is caught in the Swadhisthana chakra (fear). You worship the God who gives confidence, who you believe will take care of you - you go behind the idols that have many weapons and many hands. You experience God as a protector.

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सत्संगत्वे निस्संगत्वं

निस्संगत्वे निर्मोहत्वं

निर्मोहत्वे निश्चलितत्वं

निश्चलितत्वे जीवनमुक्तिः ॥

Satsangatve nissangatvam

nissangatve nirmohatvam

nirmohatve nischalitatvam

nischalitatve jivanmuktihi

Through the company of the good, there arises non-attachment; through non-attachment, there arises freedom from delusion; through absence of delusion, there arises steadfastness; through steadfastness, there arises liberation in life.

Bhaja Govindam 9

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Meditation is not sitting in a corner, alone, in a cross legged position, with back pain, knee pain, neck pain, complaints, saying - I am not able to control my mind - all these things! Meditation is all about making a shift in your Consciousness. The moment you bring yourself to the present, you feel enthusiastic, alive, joyful and blissful. So the cognitive shift or shift in your Energy is what I call meditation

The condition of a man who tries to calm his mind by mantras today is most likely to be like the person who was told to meditate not thinking about a monkey; all that he could see were monkeys whenever he sat down to meditate. During the age of Patanjali, man was able to calm his mind by meditating with mantras. At that time, Man was simple with no complex cerebral layers, hence these techniques worked. Today, methods adopting silence will not help. Man has become neurotic and complicated. Neurosis has become the normal state of man. With the growth of

Science and Consumerism, all of us have become neurotic. Like how the bullock cart is outdated, so also are the bullock cart techniques. With those techniques, you will be able to travel at the speed of a bullock cart. This is the jet age. You should be able to travel at jet speed in your inner space with techniques designed by Modern day Masters and Mystics.

Spiritual practices or sadhanas in the Indian tradition usually follow one of three paths: the first, one of puja or rituals which require extensive preparation, and which is physical; the second is mantra japa, repetition of a word constantly; the third is dhyana, the silent contemplation.

In puja or ritualistic sadhanas which may also include practices of yoga the process has the danger of becoming mechanical losing its original objective. How many times have we seen priests intoning slokas and sutras mechanically during a puja or a yagna, their mind far away focused on

other mundane matters? Mothers and grandmothers chanting ashtotras and sahasranamas (108 and 1008 names of the Lord chanted in prayer), more worried about what number they are on and keen to finish and get it over with. It requires great dedication, discipline and fixity of purpose to practice the ritualistic routes to progress spiritually. Moreover these practices are gross in nature, verbalized and full of physical interventions that continuously keep the mind occupied with thoughts and with forms.

With mantra japa the physical grossness is reduced and the possibility to focus intensely is increased. However, the very fact that the mind is focused on a word, which is what a mantra is, means that, there is constant verbalization and visualization following the word. The mind is engaged in the form and in thoughts. This limits the spiritual progress that can be made using this process. As long as we are in the form we are limited.

All sages agree that in the final analysis Truth is formless. Whether it is Sankara who propounded Advaita, or Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who was constantly with the form of Mother Kali, or Ramana Maharishi with his self enquiry process for liberation, all these enlightened Masters unanimously agree that the Absolute Brahman is formless. The formless Truth is not possible to achieve with any process involving words and physical activity.

Dhyana or Meditation is a non verbal technique that is subtle and is focused on awareness and the present. Dhyana is the path to shed Maya, our illusions and fantasies and to reach enlightenment.

Patanjali's yoga sutras define various steps to enlightenment. The first step yama alone comprises five steps, all quite strenuous: celibacy, truth, non violence, not stealing, not possessing. Only after you practice all these steps and master them, are you qualified to move up to the next step in

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Vayu; from Vayu came Agni; from Agni came Apa (water); from Apa came Prithvi; from Prithvi Aushada (herbs); from Aushada came Anna (food); from Anna came the human, the man.

Man can access four out of the five elemental energies listed above directly; from the earth he gets food; from water he quenches thirst; from agni he derives warmth; through vayu he breathes; however he has no means to abstract energy from akasha which is the subtlest, and the most expansive of the five elemental energies. The only way he can do this is through dhyana, meditation.

Cosmic energy is not just power. Power or bala is animal strength; energy or Shakti is power with consciousness; energy is intelligent. Humans are the only species on planet earth who have this potential for Shakti, as they alone have consciousness. For them to be in this energy field, they need to meditate.

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present moment. The present moment leads you to bliss. Living in the present, the power of NOW straight away leads you to bliss.

This is Vipassana, a very powerful meditation technique that all can use safely.

See, when you start searching things from outside, you are searching for the impossible. It can never happen. It is like trying to do housekeeping in your dreams! You buy a big house in your dreams, try to keep it clean and neat and suddenly you wake up and everything is lost. Like that, we have so many fantasies about the future and the past and suddenly we wake up and there is nothing. On Planet Earth, whenever you hang behind the past and the future, you are wasting the present moment, the precious present moment in which you can live, which you can just enjoy, where you can just feel the Existence. Instead we make ourselves continuously dull. Whenever we are drowned in the past or in the future, we

again and again miss the present - the life, the Life Force. If you bring yourself to the present, even your inhaling and exhaling quality will be different. The moment the Energy shift happens in your Being, that energy shift is what I call meditation. Meditation is not sitting in a corner, alone, in a cross legged position, with back pain, knee pain, neck pain, complaints, saying - I am not able to control my mind - all these things! Meditation is all about making a shift in your Consciousness. The moment you bring yourself to the present, you feel enthusiastic, alive, joyful and blissful. So the cognitive shift or shift in your Energy is what I call meditation.

Just consciously inhale and exhale as long a possible, whenever you remember. The moment you consciously start breathing, you start witnessing your thoughts. No thought can escape from your Being. Usually, we continuously create negative inner chattering. We create negative thoughts about ourselves. We create guilt;

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inexhaustible cosmic energy, instead of which we choose to live in shackled compartments of depleted energy.

There are a number of other meditation techniques that we teach in our courses; each will have a specific objective. In the

Ananda Spurana Program we take you through meditation techniques to energize the chakras, the energy centres in the

body. We take you through meditations that are joyous and fun; they are dynamic and easy to follow. These techniques are

eclectic drawn from all major spiritual practices of the world. These have been practiced for thousands of years by

generations of our ancestors; they are foolproof in execution and have no side effects. All you lose if you do not practice

the meditation for a day is the loss of that day's experience. Once you have picked up this magical fruit and tasted it, you

never want to put it down.

Meditation techniques that we teach you in ASP are the know-how that the pilot has to have, to fly the machine of your mind body system, using the chakras which are the engine and the transmission system. Even if we do not wish to utilize the full potential of the powerful machine that we are, for even reasonable performance of our well being we need to keep the chakras in good order. Most of our ailments, physical and mental are a result of blocked chakras.

All it takes is a few minutes each day once you know how to energize your chakras through meditation.

Sleep provides rest to our system by lowering the metabolic rate by 8%, which is enough to rejuvenate you for about 16 hours. In contrast, meditation lowers the metabolic rate by 24%. Effects of even simple meditation techniques, on overall body and mind health has been well established.

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Mysticism and philosophy

This title really implies Eastern mysticism and Western philosophy. I have reduced the title to mysticism and philosophy. We have a general concept, mysticism means it is east and philosophy means it is west. It is not true. There are many mystics, many enlightened persons born in the West and many dull philosophers, dry intellects, born in the East. So both the East and West have contributed to mysticism and philosophy.

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

What is mysticism and what is philosophy? Philosophy is intellectual; the knowledge; the information; verbalization of experience; memories of the past; assumptions about the future; all these are philosophy. This is more based on logic; collecting and analyzing the information and coming to conclusion.

Mysticism is transforming your life. It is alchemy which happens in your being. The word ‘alchemy’ is something you need to understand. It is the science of transforming the lower metals into higher metals; copper into gold; mercury can be solidified. The lower metals are raised to higher level metals. Alchemy is the process which makes metals pure. The transformation of the inner being is what I call the ultimate alchemy; this is the alchemy which happens in your inner being. Man becomes God; Devil becomes Divine; Words become realizations. This process is what I call alchemy. Mysticism is more to do with alchemy than philosophy is.

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Enlightened persons' philosophies are called darshanas. Darshanas do not mean philosophy or logical theory. It is just a recording of what they have seen. It is philosium. Philosophy is born out of mind. Philosium or mysticism is born out of no-mind. Philosophy is born out of matter. Mind is nothing but matter, bio-computer. Philosophy is born out of bio-computer. Mysticism is born out of bio-energy. Philosophy is an outcome of intellect. Mysticism is the outcome of enlightenment. Philosophy comes from intellect, Mysticism comes from intuition. Philosophy can see only 120 degrees. But mysticism can see all the 360 degrees. That is why the photos or statues of mystics, Buddha, Shiva, Jesus... all the mystics are shown with a third eye. Third eye means 360 degrees; the power of seeing in all angles. It is the complete vision.

With intellect you can touch only the level of head. Intellect is communication.

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bread and butter. But unfortunately man cannot live only with bread and butter. If man can live only with bread and butter, just philosophy can win. But unfortunately man cannot live only with bread and butter. In the Bible, Mathew 4:4 reads 'Man cannot live by bread alone. He needs the words of the creator also'. If philosophy can satisfy, libraries are more than enough. There will be no need for temples, churches, and monasteries. If philosophy can satisfy, libraries are sufficient. But philosophy doesn't satisfy. The language of outer world is philosophy; if you want material success, if you want to succeed in the material world, you should know philosophy. You should know logic. You should know how to cut and analyze.

In the inner world, the very language is different. For the inner world you need only mysticism or the help of a mystic. If you try to test the rose flower with a touch stone, what will happen?

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

American was in search of ways and means to escape. He was taken to their leader. By the side of the leader, there was a young man neatly dressed in American style. The American saw a ray of hope. If at all he knows a little English, he thought. I may have a chance. Just at that moment, that young man asked in a clear Oxford accent ‘Tell me your last wishes, if any. I shall try to fulfil. These guys don’t know the formalities.’ The American was shocked. He asked. “You seem to be educated. Having lived in the most civilized society, haven’t you changed even a little?” The African immediately responded indignantly ‘Why not?’ he added, ‘Even now, when they have you roasted, I will use only fork and spoon.’ The outer look may change by intellectual education, but the inner flowering cannot happen.

If you feel you have understood something from the Master’s words, be very clear you have misunderstood. If you feel satisfied with the understanding of the master’s

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orator will never leave gaps between his flow of words; but I am giving gaps purposefully. I am not here to orate; I am not here to teach you something. I want to give you something. The gaps are for creating vacuum. While hearing my speech, your mind will continuously yearn for the next word. A sudden gap will create a vacuum. This is totally different. If you know how to be aware of the gaps you will be able to feel my presence. You are here to have my presence. You will see something more; something more than just hearing the words, is happening. If you think you are learning you are missing.

If you attend 2 or 3 satsangs, you will know I am just speaking the same thing in different words; the same message in different angles and words. The message has not changed. The main message can never change. It is the same thing I speak about. Why I am speaking every day? My speech is a technique. It is not philosophy or teaching. It is a technique. It is a

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verbalization. That is the difference between Ramanujam and others. Ramanujam never had formal education till 8; therefore he could retain his power of visualization. His thinking was more intuitive than intellectual. Every kid, when they come to earth, they visualize. That is why the eyes of the kids are so alive.

That is why they say the eyes are the index of the mind. Not only mind but being. Whatever is inside is shown by eyes. We never look into others' eyes. We dare not to be exposed. In words we can play, we can hide. You can think one thing and tell one thing. But you can't play in visualization. You can't hide anything in your eyes. That is why we dare not look at each other through the eyes. If you are courageous, you can gaze through eyes. It is a meditation to see through eyes.

Kids visualize. Up to the age of 7, as long as the visualization capacity is there the kids' eyes are vibrant. As soon as his visualization

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entire society is in verbalization and it can not tolerate anyone beyond words, beyond verbalization.

Parents, as they themselves are in philosophical line, are unable to bear the energy of their children. They start conditioning. They go on conditioning till the kid learns logic, learns verbalization. Once the kid is dull, dry, just like the parents, they are satisfied that their heir is okay.

Let us see, how philosophy deals with a problem and how mysticism deals with a problem; physical, mental, and spiritual. If we look at it, we will be able to understand what mysticism is and what philosophy is, the angle of philosophy and the angle of mysticism.

How do mysticism and philosophy deal with your problem; with your physical problem such as disease?

The healing system born out of philosophy or logic, takes the human body for a bio-

mechanism. It deals the body in parts. For these healing methods, the body and mind are two different things. But unfortunately, it is not so. If you have a disease, pain in some part of the body, all the medication systems born out of philosophy try to attend only to the particular part, by some chemical treatment, operation or replacement of the part.

For example, if one half of a mango is decayed. Do you say, it is part decayed mango; no, you will discard the entire fruit; but if one part of the human body is affected, philosophy says it is handicapped. Only that part is attended; but then, what happens? Pills taken for headache, for example, create stomach ache. After some time, there is knee pain. In other words, the pills transfer the pain from head to stomach. Moreover, there is no assurance that the pain will not recur. The time gap, the gap between pain in one part and the other is called ‘healthy period’.

The philosophical view of the body as a bio mechanism is not right. The human body, as such is not a bio-machine. It is something more. The same energy is circulated all over the body. It can not be that some energy is there in the affected part and other parts are with some other energy. No. Even physically, the whole body is circulated with the same blood. The affected part is not getting a different type of blood. That is why these healing methods are able only to postpone the pain or transfer the pain.

On the other hand, the very view of the healing systems of Mysticism towards the human body is different. They see the human body as a whole. As they see the body as a whole, they are holy. Mysticism recognizes only two levels, healthy and diseased. There is no percentage problem. They see the root cause of the disease. It is not trying to heal the affected part alone. It is not trying to put off the symptom.

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The reason is simple. They have become dry philosophers. You can never have a smooth relationship with a philosopher. Philosophy and logic make them dream. They seldom face the ground reality. They lose the wonderful moment of the present. The common man cannot relate with these gold medallists.

No philosopher can have pet animals. They can't play with kids. They are the worst perfectionists; because, to have a pet or to play with a kid, you should be spontaneous. You should have a sense of humour. You should at least have a smile in your face. But these are too much for a philosopher. They can't laugh. Even if you tell them a joke, they will start analyzing it.

One word of caution; by the name philosopher, I am not only referring to the students of philosophy, but to every one who are all conditioned to the rules in their respective profession and every moment of life.

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Philosophy tends to fill your brain and expand your mind. But common sense becomes uncommon. For them, mind is the ultimate. They can't go beyond it.

But on the other hand, the Ashrams, the mysticism school, trains to switch off the mind whenever not required. For them, mind is one of the parts and there is something more. They deal at the being level and train to handle the mind as you do with your limbs. For them, being is the ultimate. Mind or no-mind is an option. You can toggle between the two.

A mystic lives entirely in the present. He enjoys every moment to the fullest. He is always spontaneous and joy-filled. He merges completely with the nature. His walk is mostly floating. His walk is like dancing.

See, if you are learning driving, driving a car, the first thing you learn is to stop the car; to applying the brakes. Philosophers

fuel the car, drive it, monitor the speed, but they are unable to stop the car. If you are in a speeding car, in the driver's seat, does it mean that you are driving the car? It is the car driving you. Only mysticism trains you to apply brakes. It shows you to be in no-mind state.

Next, let us take the problems of the spirit, spiritual plane. For this philosophy offers psychoanalysis. Collecting, cutting and analyzing the other man's mind. For a philosopher, psychoanalysis is the end. They make you talk and talk. There will be a curtain between you and the doctor. You can't see the doctor. Once, you are exhausted, they will start analyzing your words and inject some new words.

Sitting after sitting, time roles by; one fine morning, the doctor may become psychic and you may be all right. You might have recovered due to the fear of going to the same doctor, repeating the same words;

out of sheer boredom of speaking the same words again and again.

With philosophy your head is filled up. Your mind has become a dustbin. What else can you do? You have to vomit. You expect somebody to hear what you vomit. That is why you pay your psycho analyst. Once, they asked me, 'Swamiji, can you see any major problem in psychoanalysis'. The analysis itself is a problem. After so many years of research, continuous analysis, no solution is arrived.

If you should attend to a problem in a vehicle, you should stop it and then try to set it right. But philosophers know of no brakes. They just keep the vehicle moving; of course, they even accelerate it and try to attend to its problem. It won't work.

I think, in a busy hour, one doctor may even attend to more than one patient at the same time. Sometimes, if he is too

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gathering problems after problems, finally, he falls prey to one.

On an average, it is said that one third of the US population is under depression and one third is in the borderline. This indeed is a shocking fact in a society, where the psychoanalysis is a roaring profession, and the society is considered 'mature, civilized and cultured'. In US alone, in one year (2003), the number of depression medication prescription touches the figure 103 million.

For depression, philosophy can only analyze, no solution is given. In mysticism, enlightenment is given as the solution. Mystics give enlightenment as a solution for the being level problems, spiritual problems. Enlightenment is not analysis. It is dropping. Say, you want to clean your house. Your dustbin is full. Will you sit and analyze the contents of the dustbin? Will you study your dustbin? If you do, will it help in

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Nothing is instant. But mind is restless. It is a monkey. It always looks for instant solutions.

A small story: once three monkeys found one mango in a forest. They wanted to share it. They went to a man near by and asked him to help them to share the fruit.

That man told the monkeys not to share the fruit but to plant it. He said, 'if you plant it, water it regularly, put some manure, it will become a big tree and you can have more mangoes.' The monkeys agreed.

Time passed by. The fruit had not sprouted. The monkeys again had a quarrel. They came to the same man. He started enquiring.

The first monkey said, 'I was watering it regularly'. The second one said, 'I was feeding it with manure' the third one said, 'I was watching it carefully. Daily I pulled it out to see whether it has sprouted.'

This will not work. You have to wait for some time. You have to wait for your being to sprout into bliss. If you need a plastic rose, you can have it ready

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

made. If your need is a natural rose from the plant, you have to wait for some time. But we have no patience. Everything should be instant. That is why we run behind the solutions given by the philosophers. The ways of the mystics not only solves the problem from the base, they dissolve you in the eternal bliss.

I wish you all the power to solve and dissolve your problems in the mystical way and to be, in, and experience the eternal bliss, Nithyanandam.

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

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Einstein is a super scientist. It is because of Einstein that scientists started respecting mystics. Otherwise scientists had a prejudiced idea of all spiritual things. They felt that what they knew of the universe was correct. Einstein was the first to state that the end of science is the beginning of spirituality. Einstein says: There are only two ways of living; either as if everything is a miracle, including all with relationships of cause and effect; or live as though nothing is a miracle.

I am trying to make you understand that nothing is a miracle; then I want you to understand everything is a miracle. How does a lotus seed change mud into a lotus? How does a piece of bread become your blood? You may explain scientifically your understanding, but your knowing how does not change anything, the process is still a miracle.

For children, the universe is wonder-filled because they don't have logic. They don't

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happens. To you it's one more Friday, one more Saturday, and another Sunday. What do you know? The moment you label it as Friday, you think you know everything about that day. You just take it for granted. Because you take people for granted you don't enjoy your relationships. You judge people first and collect arguments to support your judgment. You can never step into the same river twice, because by that time the river has moved. People also move, they change, and they are not the same as the persons you met before. By the time you meet them again your husband or wife has changed; something is added to them; either intelligence or foolishness. But you don't agree. You hold on to the same mental set up.

Sushruta wrote 5000 years ago. He talks about open heart surgeries and transplants. He was a great enlightened Master. He said: every six months your liver replaces itself completely. Not even one part is same. Once in 21 days your intestine

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even if you do not realize why. You do not live based on intelligence, you live based on information.

Ability to respond spontaneously is responsibility. Responsibility is not name and fame or status. Only those who have spontaneity can survive in this world. You may have had education, money yet you may not be successful. Intelligence is not based on information that you have or received. That's only intellect, Intelligence is about how you can let go, be spontaneous, be without prejudice. It is not the totality of your experiences, it is the lessons learnt from experiences; difference between anubhava which is experience and anubhuti which is intelligence is this: anubhuti is the sum total of the lessons from anubhava._You do not need to touch many different types of fire, from a match stick to a blazing fire, to know that fire burns; even one experience will do. You need the lesson of just one experience. But we trust only experience, not intelligence.

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let go, which is your ego, which are not true, all these false experiences, which are not real, therefore you miss reality. When you miss reality you feel nothing is a miracle. You take everything for granted.

There are so many miracles happening to you every day. We are watching TV and suddenly you feel that the character you're watching is about to say something, and sure enough she obliges. You are about to sit down for dinner, the doorbell chimes, and you know who is at the door; sure enough, it's the old school mate you haven't seen in years.

I find that in my discourses often over 50% of the audience responds positively when I ask if they had experienced a similar phenomenon at any point of their lives. When this happens, most of the time we brush it off saying that it's a coincidence. When to some this happens repetitively we attach the tag of a 'gifted' person, similar to those who see auras and

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

sense the vibrational energy of people and places.

When the magnitude of the experience is far greater we no longer term it a coincidence. Some one predicts disasters rightly time and again, and forecasts deaths. Others heal people given up as lost cases by doctors. Some produce substances out of thin air. We then call them miracles. When you do not take everything for granted everything is a miracle. That you are alive is a miracle. Thousands of miracles keep happening within you.

There are no miracles in life. It is just that we do not yet understand the laws that govern occurrence of such incidents that seem to defy 'scientific' laws. Once we understand that this universe supports laws that go beyond the 'scientific' laws that have been so far discovered by humans, we start understanding the cause and effect linkages behind many of these

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inexplicable happenings and start appreciating the mysteries of our Universe.

Astrophysicists talk now about the parallel universe. They have discovered that each time a star system dies as a black hole another start system is born in a big bang somewhere else in the universe. Every action produces a reaction.

Chaos Theory now says that action and reaction do not need to be proportionate. There is no linearity in nature. A butterfly fluttering its wings in China causes a tornado in Mexico! This is science, not imagination.

Matter and energy were totally different entities till Einstein established their linkage. Even after Einstein, it was either matter or energy, never both in the same time and space. It is only recently that the principle of ‘singularity’ that allows matter and energy to exist simultaneously in a common time and space framework has

been understood. 'Singularity' is the common universal platform the Universal Consciousness that we call Brahman.

Making contact with Brahman is not impossible, once you know how. With thoughts crowding our mind, all that we normally do is to flit from one zone to another, from regrets to speculations, with no time to ground ourselves in the present. However, once we allow ourselves to settle in the here and now, in the present, thoughts gradually disappear. When thoughts disappear there is an expansion of our ability to expand in time and space, which allows us to traverse the past, present and future simultaneously.

Once we are the present miracles become common place, and we do know that they are no longer miracles but a natural flow of the universe.

If some one complains that he cannot change, I say change is your nature; I am surprised that you are holding on to the

same character. Let go and you will change. Your body is changing. Your mind is changing. You are becoming more mature. You just have to let go, relax, allow yourself to change. Existence will change you. Life will change you. Trust yourself and relax. When they don’t listen and insist I give them advice to confuse them. If you let it, your heart will transform you. The air you inhale and exhale will potentially change you. If your body, which is so gross and matter can change, don’t you think your mind, which is subtle, and energy can not change? If you trust your intelligence you will be transformed immediately. You will be enlightened when you drop your mental setup, like dropping a fire pot. But you can not believe so easily. You say give me a technique. It’s so difficult. The word difficulty is the greatest difficulty. When you know fire burns drop the fire. Where is the difficulty? Be a little more intelligent. Drop what hurts. When you understand that the mental setup causes you trouble, drop it. You will then transform your being.

You ask, how will I survive if I drop? The seed always wonders what will I do if I break? Unless it breaks the plant can not grow. Trust and open, trust and break, you will grow. If you make mistakes it's worth making mistakes. Perfectionism is madness. The more you are far from perfect the more God has grace for you. Search for perfection is search for madness. Graveyard is the perfectly secure place. But it's not the place to live; it is only for the dead. A ship is secure in the harbor, but it has to move out to function.

As you move from ego to spontaneity you will undergo pain, transition, that's your penance, your tapas; that's the price you pay for a better life. Everything will be a miracle. When you take life for granted, what results is boredom and depression. You seek to acquire not to enjoy. You can increase the height of your bed not the depth of your sleep.

Meditation is the key to spontaneity. Do not keep track of what you have undergone.

It's better to let go and grow without worrying about what happens. Enlightenment is not a step by step growth process, it is a quantum phenomenon. Living moment to moment, in the present, without worrying about past and present is meditation. It's a quality to be added to your life, not a quantity to be added to your life.

A Zen master is sentenced to death by his king. He is unconcerned. Disciples ask are you not bothered you are going to die tomorrow. He says, how can I worry about a day later, even the next moment is a new miracle for me.

When you live in the present all your fantasies drop, all your fears drop. If result is exciting you call it a miracle; if you do not like the result you call it a coincidence; if it's average you call it an incident.

When your ego is rooted in one place it does not get rejuvenated. If some one is

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वयसि गते कः कामविकारः

शुष्के नीरे कः कासारः

क्षीणे वित्ते कः परिवरो

ज्ञाते तत्त्वे कः संसारः ॥

vayasi gate ka kamavicharaha

sushke neere ka kasaraha

ksheene vitthe ka parivaraha

gnyate thatve ka samsaraha

When youth is gone where is lust? When water is gone where is the lake? When wealth is gone, where are thee kinsmen? When Truth is known, where is the wordly bondage?

Bhaja Govindam 10

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Ananda Yoga — Path of Ecstasy

Ananda is bliss. Nanda is something that can die out, disappear and is related to suffering. Ananda is that which can never disappear from your being, it is bliss. It is not joy. Joy brings suffering in its wake. Ananda is beyond joy. It is eternal bliss, nithya ananda.

Pleasure is what you feel through your senses based on an outer object; music, a fragrance, a beautiful sight, physical touch. When you meet nature, a mountain, a sea, a forest, you feel joy. When you feel ecstasy without sensory inputs or nature, not even inputs of forms of God, only from your inner core of energy, your atman, without any external input, it is bliss. It can be with no reason. It comes from within. That is Ananda.

Yoga: it's important to understand what yoga is not. Yoga is not physical exercises or breath control; these are but parts of Yoga. Yoga is union; the union with the divine; union with the cosmic power. It is Chitta vritti nirodaha: it's the cessation of the mind, to take it beyond the mind, to be one with existence. The blissful technique to unite your own self with the divine is ananda yoga, using bliss itself to unite.

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is Satchitananda. Sat is that truth which always exists; chit is consciousness; ananda is bliss. All meditators search for the Truth, that which is permanent. Path of Consciousness is when you surrender yourself to the Master, to the Divine. In the path of ananda, bliss, the start, the path and the end, all are bliss. When your consciousness is surrendered to the ultimate truth the path is blissful, the travel is bliss, and its end is also bliss.

Religion, which is dull and dry, is a punishment. After a long dry sermon the priest announced that there would be a congregation of the Church Board in the next room; soon after when people assembled in the next room, there was a stranger and the priest asked why he was there since it was a meeting of the Board, and only for members of the Board. The stranger replied that he thought it was a meeting for the bored, and since he was bored by the sermon he also came in. That's what mostly religion is; boring.

Religion has become a ceremony, and a ritual forced on people through greed and fear; greed of heaven and fear of hell. Its objective is anti life.

In an ashram in India the Master had a pet cat, which every day came for the puja and played and disturbed the puja. So the Master ordered that the cat be covered in a basket during puja. This practice continued. One day the cat died. Disciples went and got another cat because they thought puja can not happen without a cat. Even after the master's death the practice continued. It became a standard operating procedure. If one day they could not get a cat, there was no puja.

There is a yoga group where the practice takes months to open the chakras through long dry techniques. Those people who practice this yoga, when they came to attend an ASP with me were surprised that chakras can be opened in 2 days. I said

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many Masters like Sankara, Vivekananda, Ramana and others.

I said Krishna and Shiva are the same energy. They said in Gita Krishna says: I am God. I said no, when Krishna says I, he does not refer to the body, the son of Vasudeva, but his super consciousness. I told them to read Anagita, which follows Gita. After the Mahabharata war, Krishna and Arjuna went out together. Arjuna says: I have forgotten all you said earlier, can you repeat. Krishna says: you forgot, oh, but I also forgot. Arjuna says how is that possible? Krishna says the person who spoke to you then was not the Vasudeva Krishna but Parabrahma Krishna. I spoke as the Parabrahman then. Now I am in the normal state. I am now in the Form. Then I was Formless. Gita was delivered as energy.

A disciple asked sometimes you look divine, unfathomable, other times you look like an

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very devoted to practices; these too are difficult for many.

In the path of ananda there are no restrictions, nothing to renounce. Your living, every moment of your life, has to be ananda, bliss.

I was sitting with kids today (this was in a city in the USA). None laughed. I told them a few stories. They never laughed. They behave in such a matured way that I thought I will grow old if I spend more time with them. Every one was talking like an adult. In the US they have forgotten to be kids. I want to take them to India and show how kids laugh and enjoy themselves. I was shocked that they did not laugh. I was bored. In India I went to attend a meeting with kids and I was asked to speak. One kid did not understand what I was saying: he came and pulled my dhoti; he made me stop and pay attention to him. He was clear

what he wanted; he acted like a child should. Here in the US they are too cultured. They will become depressed. Depression is the gift of logic to the educated. You even measure your laughter. You start talking to someone only after you have verified who that person is. It is sad. They were all expressionless; they think they are Buddhas; they are Buddhas. They were all asking philosophical questions. Nothing was practical. They learn from adults. They learn from our body language.

I shall give you now three small keys from Tantra to make your life blissful. Forget all your ASP, NSP and Healers’ Initiation techniques and meditations; just carry these three keys, that's enough.

First key is acceptance of life; never grudge, grumble. If you accept you will have intelligence to accept life. This is ‘Thatata’ which is ease, ease of acceptance.

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

A middle aged lady went to Buddha with her son's dead body one early morning, and pleaded: Lord please revive him. Buddha knew what ever he could say would be unacceptable to her. He said go and get a handful of mustard seed from a house where no one has died. She goes from house to house, without finding even one such house. What she is suffering from every one else has suffered too. There is no house in this world where someone has not died.

We worry because we feel others do not worry. If we realize every one has worries we won't worry. We need to see others unhappy to reduce our unhappiness.

When this lady understood this truth she became a nun, a bikku. She said even if you had given my child life, my life would have gone on as usual. Now I am transformed.

Giving life is not a miracle, transforming a person is the miracle.

A boy became a Sanyasi. His elder brother came to take him back. Whenever some one wants to take up spiritual life there will always be problems. If there is no problem then being a renunciate won't suit you. Husband grumbles about wife spending time at ashram. Wife thinks husband will become a sanyasi. Only when there is a problem, you come without telling the other person, only then it is worth it. In India husband and wife both come separately without telling each other and meet at the ashram. Some people do not want to show publicly that they go to ashram, since people may think that they have a problem; they will want to make sure that some other persons they know will not be there; then they will meet them there; that's life.

Thata happens when you accept. Accept life as it happens.

The elder brother kept insisting that the younger come back. The younger brother said: what will happen if I come back. We will fight for father's property after sometime. I shall give you all that property now. Take it and go away. The elder brother understood, accepted and went away.

If you do not accept, are things going to change? No. Nothing will change. Wherever you can change you will change.

Next is a conscious decision to live joyfully.

Here's a Sufi story. The great master Abdullah was always happy, in laughter, in bliss. Some one asked him how you are so joyful. Please teach us. Every day when I get up I ask Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah, what do you want today? Joy or Suffering?

Mind says I want bliss. I say have bliss. That's all. Disciple says but there is so much suffering. Abdullah said so what? If you suffer does it help? No. If you live in bliss miracles happen in your life.

Never decide for two days; decide only for one day; that day; the next twenty four hours. You know almost always what is happening in the next 24 hours. For most people it is the same thing that happens for the next 24 years; same wife, same house, same children. It is like the radio that is tuned to a particular station. You get what you are tuned to. If you are tuned to bliss you will get bliss.

Next 24 hours accept what ever happens. if some one calls you a dog , bark and show you are a dog. That's Thatata.

The third is this. Abdullah is asked what if the mind chooses suffering instead of bliss. Abdullah says if your mind wants suffering,

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

enjoy the suffering. The problem is the conflict that you have when you want something and you can not enjoy when you get what you wanted. It's like ordering food in a restaurant and not wanting to pay the bill. You do not like the consequences of what you desire. You forget that there will be pain after pleasure.

So if suffering happens, enjoy as it is your choice.

Follow these three techniques, and your path will be bliss and your goal will be bliss.

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

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Ananda Healing

This article is not an article transcribed from a discourse

Many of us Ananda Healers had taken the process of healing for granted. We had been initiated by an enlightened Master. The Master had told us: "Go forth and heal!" People healed when we worked with them. No other explanation seemed necessary.

Till one afternoon, when one of our most experienced Healers asked a few of us:

What is disease? How is it caused? How is it cured? How does spiritual healing work? What is ananda healing? How does meditation help healing?

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same within our body after six months. We are all rivers, rivers of energy.

Our bones, muscles, tissues and all limbs are made of cells. Our cells are made of DNA structure. These living elements of cells and DNA are intelligent. Our intelligence does not reside in our brains alone; they are distributed in every single cell of our mind body system. The intelligence of our cells is their living energy. Not just the cells, but even our thoughts carry our energy.

No learned person will dispute these points; they are proven facts.

When our energy system is disrupted we are not at ease; we feel dis-eased. Each system of medical healing tackles our diseases in its own unique way. Western allopathic medicine believes in working on specific symptom individually at each body part. If heart is diseased the heart is carefully examined. It is then treated based

on tested and tried out empirical methods. Allopathic medicines are all chemicals. These drugs are developed by noticing the effects of plant or herbal cures for similar diseases or by formulating new chemical drugs which are then extensively tested upon symptoms. Even if our diseases are cured by this approach, we are left with the residue of chemicals in our body. These residues may give rise to other diseases.

Other forms of medicine such as Homeopathy, Ayurveda etc. are more holistic. They take the individual personality into account, instead of treating all of us like a collection of body parts. Very few systems such as the Traditional Chinese Medicine as well ancient kalaripayattu techniques of India go further to look at the body as an energy system. They try to cure the body by unblocking energy pathways and activating them. In some of the more advanced techniques of these systems the mind is addressed as well.

Recently many spiritual healing techniques such as Reiki and Pranic Healing have become popular. They are also effective. These techniques rightly establish a connection between the energy of the Universe that surrounds us and the energy system within us. They attempt to heal by energizing the human body by using the Universe energy through the contact of an initiated healer. Many of these techniques can affect the healer negatively unless precautions are taken. Pranic Healers are told to wash their hands in salt water after healing so that the diseases of the healed do not affect them. Many others involve processes and rituals that divert the mind.

Indian scriptures talk about the five elements of nature: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Energy of the Universe is etheric energy, the subtlest, most powerful and the most abundant of all energy. We are all an inherent part of these five elements. These five elements are an integral part of us.

Through spiritual healing we recoup energy from own elements back into us. Because of this spiritual healing can never harm us.

Swami Nithyananda Parahamsa initiates seekers into Ananda Healing System. Ananda healing system is essentially a spiritual healing system. Ananda Healing uses the Universe energy to empower the human energy system to heal itself. As in all the spiritual energy healing methods here also the healer is a conduit for the energy to flow through. However, Ananda Healing has a few major differences from other commonly practiced spiritual healing techniques.

Ananda healing has no negative impact on the Healer. It has no side effects on the healed. This is the only system we know where the healer is simultaneously healed during the healing. At another level there is a continuous input into one's spiritual path.

Ananda Healing works at the highest energy level possible, at the nirvanic level, which is the level of cosmic energy. It is possible for the ananda healer to reach this level because the meditation on anada gandha is wordless upon the formless. Other energy healing practices which use symbols and words reach only up to the lower etheric layer of energy and therefore are limited in effectiveness

Ananda healing has no symbols or rituals to follow. Once initiated just the intent to heal with a focus on one’s ananda gandha starts the healing process. Since healing energy is intelligent it does not have to be applied at any specific point. The energy flow stops when what is required for the healing has been received.

The person getting healed is advised to practice a mahamantra meditation

practice. This meditation connects the mind of the healed person with the healing process and makes it very effective. Meditation moves the mind to a near no thought state so that there is no block to the body system receiving the cosmic energy. In addition the positive energy of the meditation reinforces the cosmic energy that is received by the body. Our body in turn uses this energy to heal itself.

Experiments have been conducted upon Nithyananda at Oklahoma University, USA and at St.Louis, USA recently. These show that during the healing process extraordinary changes take place both in Swami's brain and in the brain of the person being healed. The connection between the Healer, the Healed and the Cosmic Energy is gradually being demystified and explained in modern scientific terms.

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chakras merge finally. Ananda Gandha is in the heart region and is the seat of bliss. Nithyananda awakens the Ananda Gandha of the seeker to allow the body to receive and give cosmic energy without any block. This is an experience that is severely limited by words. No Ananda Healer whom we know has remained the same after initiation. A major personal transformation is initiated as well. It is then the choice of the individual to make use of this transformation. At the most passive level one is still a powerful healer. With active practice the healer progresses on one's own spiritual path.

Swami Says:

Buddha has said: Healing is expression of your compassion and care towards someone to help them is healing. Healing is restoring physical, mental and emotional well being. Healing can happens at any of these levels.

The system of healing was created by Patanjali thousands of years ago, out of the practices of thousands of great masters who expressed their energies by healing others.

According to him there are seven energy centers in our body that control our physical, mental, psychological, intellectual and Being level activities.

These centers, also called chakras, are also someway related to our glandular functions.

Techniques such as Kirlian photography have established the existence of chakras by photographing the aura or subtle energy field of our body.

Diagnostically this technique predicts the onset of diseases six months ahead of other common medical tests.

If a person is emotionally affected, depressed, the chakras are very small, size of a button.

If the person is happy, chakras expand 60 times or more.

Mind is shown to play a major role on the chakras.

Attitude of prayer and meditation create positive energy vibrations that in turn

positively enhance energy of the chakras. Each chakra is associated with an emotion. The Heart chakra or Anahata chakra is related to love. Heart signifies love in almost all languages. This is not a coincidence. When you see a loved one after years you feel an emotion at your heart region. Emotion wells up in the heart region. The navel chakra, Manipuraka, is related to worry. Any shocking news affects your stomach first. Ambitious people and perfectionists develop ulcers. If an emotion is abused the chakra gets blocked and creates disease and illness. Discomfort between body and mind creates dis-ease.

Meditation creates healing energy. When a person for whatever reason is unable to meditate, someone else can meditate, create the energy and transfer the energy to the person who is ill.

Einstein says matter creates energy. Scriptures go further and say energy

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only physical strength or power he will become a thug. If he has only intellectual strength he will be a criminal. Only when a man has spiritual strength in addition, can a person become useful to society. Atomic weapons stored in our planet can destroy the planet earth 700 times. It is because we have developed our physical and intellectual aspects without any inputs to our spiritual side. In Indian villages temples are the centre point; this was to develop the emotional and holistic development of people.

Sarada Devi says: Live with deep faith, deep trust and deep love. Even if you get cheated you would still live like a God. Without them even if you prosper you do not live your life.

People ask: our ancestors wasted energy by building big temples. Western countries build universities and infrastructure. I said: you do not understand yourself. These

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

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Enlightenment

Who does not want to be enlightened?

Who does not want to be another Buddha?

All of us wish we are transformed. Yet, the wish remains a wish, because the moment the opportunity arrives to convert the wish into reality, most of us draw back, fearful of what the transformation may bring to us.

Enlightenment is not for the fearful. It is for the few who struggle without relenting, with an urgent urge, with a desperation borne out of a passion from the deepest recesses of one's spirit. When the struggle becomes that desperate when there is no other support system that sustains us, when it is a free fall into the unknown, then enlightenment happens.

Enlightenment is not surrender. When we decide to surrender we always surrender to a known entity in whom we have tremendous faith and trust. When we go past that stage when that faith and trust is breached, and we start questioning the validity of those who have thus far blindly believed in; then the struggle is truly desperate and we are ready to be enlightened. There is nothing to hold us back, and we are ready to begin another journey.

I reached a point in my quest when I started questioning the teachings and beliefs

of my masters, Bhagwan Ramana and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. I felt that they were liars and what ever they had said that they had experienced was all false. There was no place for me to turn to. I had reached a point of no return and no future.

Then it happened. In a flash I grasped what my masters had said, it was all true, and I was now part of that Truth.

Enlightenment is never an evolution. It is never gradual. It is sudden, instantaneous and irreversible. It happens when nothing else seems to work. You need to reach desperation before you become enlightened.

Enlightenment is not a goal. It is the beginning of another journey. It is a gateway, not a resting place.

Enlightenment happens when the mind is empty, never when it is full and overflowing.

Once there was a very learned American scholar who went in search of enlightenment. He was referred to a Zen Master. The Master asked him to sit for a cup of tea, and started pouring the tea into a small cup. He kept pouring and the cup overflowed. Asked the Scholar, "What are you doing? Can't see that the cup is full and nothing can go in?"

Said the wise Master: 'Of course, your mind too is full; therefore nothing can go in. Empty your mind and come back.'

I say to those who come for my meditation classes, 'leave your shoes and your mind at the door, before you come in.'

Only then is there even a possibility for you understand the Truth.

All our questions come from words (from the manipuraka chakra or the navel center). To answer them, we seek words again. Words can never solve words, like how

blood cannot clean blood. In asking or answering questions, people simply want to either show that they are knowledgeable or that they are seekers - their 'seeker ego' surfaces.

One man came to the ashram and had a long conversation with me. He went back and told everyone that I am a very good orator. Trust me; I did not speak to him at all. He spoke all the time and I simply listened. He is happy that I heard him, that's all! When your wife comes to you with a problem, don't give her any solution. Just listen to her problem; she wants somebody to listen to her, that's all. She knows the solution herself. She simply wants attention. It is the same with males too. No one wants answers.

Anu! Try to pick up that book. Just try to pick up the book. Don't pick it up but try to pick it up! This is exactly how people try to get enlightened. They keep attempting to get enlightened. These seekers are

actually deceiving themselves. Either they should pick up or drop it. There is nothing called trying to pick up. You are cheating yourself when you say, 'I am trying.' You are actually playing, but it is a costly game. In the end you will say, 'I was a seeker throughout my life'

Sastras talk of the goal. Stotras are an expression of the experience. Sastras say that the goal is there. Stotras say, "Oh, so beautiful the goal is!" Sastras say, "Go to the mountain." Stotras sing the beauty of nature from the mountain top. But how to reach the mountain? This link is given by

Shiva - as the ultimate enlightenment meditation, as a wonderful book - The Vignanabhairava Tantra. Tantra means technique. It was given by Shiva to His consort Ishwari, to clear Her doubts. It doesn't belong to any religion, creed, caste or sect. It is simply techniques to reach the Ultimate. Anyone who wants inner light can get through it a life solution. It connects the sastras and stotras. It fulfils the sastras

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seeker. Enlightenment should become a basic necessity in you; only then the real alchemy will start happening. In order to clear your doubts, a deep passive waiting without knowing what is going to happen is required. This is what passive surrender is; it is total surrender.

Two types of people come to me. The first category of people are those who have a problem and think they know the solution, but want my support and help to get the solution. In the second category of people are the ones who have a problem ,they don't know the solution and they request my help to get the solution. The former think that they have buddhi (intelligence) but not shakthi (powers). The latter understand that they have neither shakthi nor buddhi. The moment you think that God has powers but no intelligence you start guiding Him! When you guide, it only means that your ego is not mature enough to fully surrender. If you know the solutions for your problems, why are you still

suffering? They tell me a problem and give the solution along with it! When you start believing that God has got powers, religion starts. When you start believing that He has got intelligence, spirituality starts. With the former, you do all the rituals to bribe Him to get His powers.

The moment you decide to wait forever, things will simply start happening. When you are in a hurry for the lotus to bloom, you open out its petals. Can this be called 'lotus flowering?' No! You need to give it some space and it will happen. You have to wait till you decide to wait! The moment you decide to wait, you don't have to wait anymore.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, I decided to wait but it is not happening!' How can you say that you have decided to wait when you are already asking the second half of the statement! An utter, clear and total decision to wait is what the basic necessity to become enlightened is.

Either have the urgency or forget the urge itself. Don't play the in-between game. You will end up in depression. As long as the blood is hot, you will pull along; the moment the blood becomes cool, you will fall into depression, because all along you were playing the game of 'hide and seeking', not real seeking. You were on a mud horse while entering the river. Be very clear - see if you are really seeking or playing the game of 'hide and seeking'. The deep quest has to happen in you for it to become a tremendous waiting - for Enlightenment!

Enlightenment is nothing but breaking all our conditionings and getting in touch with the innocence that we have lost in the process of growing up. The path to Enlightenment or to the Divine is not difficult like how it is made out to be. First of all, the Divine is not a goal as is understood by most of us. If we look at it as a goal, we are in effect robbing it of its joy. The path itself is Divine!

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भगवदगीता किज्चिदधीता गॅगाजललवकणिका पीता सकृत्पि येन मुरारि समर्चा क्रियते तस्य यमेन न चर्चा ॥

bhagavadgita kincitadhita gangajialalavakanika pita, sakritaapi yena murari-samarcakriyate tasya yamena na carca

He, who has studied the Bhagavadgita even a little, he who has drunk a drop of the Ganga water, and he who has performed the worship of the Destroyer of the demon Mura, Krishna, at least once, he will have no quarrel with Yama, the lord of death.

Bhaja Govindam 20

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Surrendering to the Master

From form to formless

We transit in surrender;

Master moves in with Love.

There are many ways to enlightenment.

Ritualistic approach such as puja, yoga, and pranayama take a lot of time, perhaps many births. Puja and Yoga happen at the physical layer of one's mind body system, while pranayama happens at the next level of pranic layer.

At the next subtler level is mantra japa; while a mantra initiated by a realized Master would be very effective, chanting a mantra as in mechanically chanting the Vedas, sahasranamas and ashotras do not have much efficacy unless fully internalized. Mantra japas work at the mental layer, the third layer. When visualization is used as technique one can go up to the subtle etheric layer at best. Any form can only take a person up to the etheric layer. The most subtle and therefore the most powerful form of approach to enlightenment is dhyana, silent meditation, especially one initiated by a realized Master. Meditation upon the formless can take one to the final nirvanic layer, when one becomes one with the Universe. There is no surer way to enlightenment.

Attitude of the seeker determines the speed of progress. Surrender to the Master is essential for spiritual progress. Surrender has three levels. Initial surrender is that of the intellect, leading to understanding and

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Now do you understand the kind of mechanism inside you? Do you think that the Life Force that sustains this mechanism cannot sustain your life? It very well can. Only we don't have faith.

A seed has to surrender to the soil to blossom as a tree. It has to have faith in the soil and allow itself to die or to rupture in order to blossom as a tree. In the same way, we have to place our faith in Existence and surrender ourselves so that a new life, a life of Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss) with good health can blossom. How do we do it? Should we spend long hours at the temple? No. Every time you feel heavy in the heart or mind, just tell yourself that the Life Force that runs the world will take care of you also and move on, that's enough. You will see that all your depression and worries disappear and creativity blossoms in you. Surrender is your shortcut to God! It is the ultimate technique to merge with Existence.

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Krishna tells Arjuna, as they walk: Arjuna, look, there is a green crow near that tree! Says Arjuna: yes, Krishna, I see that green crow. A little later Krishna says: Arjuna, look, look at that black crow! Responds Arjuna: yes, Krishna, I see the black crow. Krishna exclaims: Arjuna, you are an idiot, how can there be a green crow? Why did you say you saw a green crow? Says Arjuna without hesitation: Krishna, when you told me to look at that green crow, all I saw was that green crow.

This is surrender of senses, the most difficult to do. Your eyes see, your ears hear, your senses feel what the Master says, not what they experience. Truth is the Master, not the maya that one's senses see externally. When one reaches this level of surrender of senses to the Master, enlightenment follows naturally.

Sitting in front of the Master, drinking in his form, swaying to his energy, being immersed in his words are all easy.

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

Buddha created 10,000 enlightened disciples in the 40 years that he preached, without even a mike. Today, with the media support that I have, with the internet, TV, books and tapes, I should create at least 200,000 enlightened beings in my life time. The more active my movement is, the stronger Dhyanapeetam becomes, the stronger I am, and the longer my physical body would last. Just some years ago I used to say I would live to 42; now as the movement gains momentum I feel I shall live to 123!

A Master does not take birth to fulfill his karma. He is born out of compassion to uplift people. Longevity of his physical body is determined by the speed and intensity of his mission.

Buddha said: Buddham saranam gachami; Dhammam saranam gachami; Sangam saranam gachami.

Buddha lived in his Dhammam and Sangam, more than his body. So do I. Only one

third of my energy is in my body; the remaining two thirds are in my sayings and my institution. I live in my words and my institution; not in my body. The more powerfully you spread my sayings and the more powerful you make Dhyanapeetam, the more powerful you make me.

It's important that I'm with you; far more important that you are physically with me or near me. When you look at me, when you listen to me, you are physically with me. When you speak my words, when you spread my mission, I am with you. This is the difference between how a monkey carries its infant and a cat does; the infant monkey clings to the mother; this is very fragile, as fragile as the infant's strength. That's what you do when you cling to me. Be like the cat; the mother carries the infant; there is no way she will let go; not even upon threat to her life; that's the way I shall carry you when you speak my words and spread my mission. I shall live in you. I shall live in your words and actions.

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Appendix

Mind of a Mystic

A report by Dr. R. Murali Krishna, President COO, INTEGRIS Mental Heath & James L. Hall, Jr. Center for Mind, Body and Spirit, Oklahoma

A Mind Matters Column

The Mind of a Mystic By R. Murali Krishna, M.D. President COO, INTEGRIS Mental Health & James L. Hall, Jr. Center for Mind, Body and Spirit

Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda Swami is a trim, healthy-looking young man with dark, shoulder-length hair. Handsome and polite, possessing an open manner and a wealth of curiosity, he could be any ordinary American college student.

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The difference is that ordinary American college students do not wear saffron robes and turbans, have not experienced spiritual enlightenment and are not regarded as a teacher, healer and mystic by millions of people in all corners of the world.

A mystic? The term is not a bad fit for 'Swami', as he is known. Mystics, popular culture tells us, have direct communion with God. Through means not understood or measurable, mystics are thought to have access to ultimate realities or truths. Picture a mystic and you'll probably picture someone full of bliss, someone gifted with lofty thoughts and insights that the rest of us do not possess.

The very presence of a mystic is thought to bring peace and healing to others.

That's an apt description of Swami, a 27-year-old from South India. He is approached by thousands of people every year seeking relief from diseases and ailments that conventional medical approaches have not cured. Swami's background lends him the air

Appendix

of a mystic, too. He left his home as a teen, visited ashrams across India, immersed himself in philosophy, read extensively and mastered the art of meditation.

When Swami passed through Oklahoma City recently as one stop in his world travels, I asked him if he would let me use some of modern medicine's newest technology to peer into his brain while he meditated. My goal: to understand, measure and demystify what happens during the mystic phenomena. Swami, who believes that meditation has a scientific basis, happily agreed.

The procedures Swami went through were administered by some of Oklahoma City's finest and most experienced physicians,

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neuropsychologists and researchers: Drs. Fordyce, Ruwe and Higgins of the Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Center Neuropsychology Department and Dr. Chacko of the PET Center of Oklahoma. These doctors were using technology they use with patients on a routine basis. When they look at images obtained by their technology, they know what's normal and what's not.

The results from testing Swami? Decidedly not normal!

Imagining Brain Activity

Our first look into Swami's brain was achieved with the help of a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) device. Unlike traditional diagnostic techniques that produce images of the body's structure or anatomy, such as X-rays, CT scans or MRI, PET produces images of the function of the brain through the metabolic activity of cells. An analog of glucose is attached to a radioactive PET tracer. The PET scanner then images the metabolically active brain areas at any given time.

Appendix

In the case of Swami, the drug was intended to identify highly active areas of the brain in an alert and conscious state, in the early stages of meditation and during deep meditation.

The results of the PET scan tests were stunning. To begin with, the activity in the frontal lobes of Swami's brain were significantly heightened, even in early meditation stages. The level of activity was several times higher than would be seen in the average human brain under any conditions. The frontal lobes are associated with the functions of intelligence, attention, wisdom and judgment.

When we then asked Swami to go into the deepest meditation state, there were two more remarkable findings.

First, the dominant hemisphere of Swami's brain was more than 90 percent shut down. It was as if Swami's brain had packed up and gone on vacation. It was quiet and still, completely at peace ... and Swami had made it so at will.

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

A second amazing aspect of Swami's deep meditation was that the lower portion of his mesial frontal areas lighted up in a very significant way. This area roughly corresponds to the reputed location of the mystical 'Third Eye'.

When we later asked Swami what he was doing when the mesial frontal areas lighted up, he said he was opening his Third Eye.

Associated with both cosmic and inner knowledge, and thought to be a place of clarity and peace, the Third Eye is considered by many to be the seat of the soul. Were we seeing an indication that deep meditation can open an area of the brain responsible for communicating with the divine, looking deep into the mysteries of Self or creation? I believe the PET scan revealed what I call the brain's 'D-spot'.

Whether you consider the 'D' in D-spot to stand for Delight, the Divine or even Dopamine (the chemical through which our bodies experience pleasure), initial indications are that meditation can stimulate it.

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brain smoothly shifted from one state to another, like a talented pianist playing the scales. There was no hesitation and no retreating, just continuous, fluid shifts from one type of brainwave to the next. Because the QEEG represents the five brainwave bandwidths as colors, it was as if we were watching Swami float from color to color within a rainbow!

Conclusions

The brain is the body's most complex organ, containing more than 100 billion neurons, each of them in chemical and electrical conversation with upto 10,000 other neurons. Its sheer capacity to process information is astonishing.

Remarkably, that complexity presents little difficulty for Swami in managing his brain activity. Swami's mind - his thoughts, emotions and intellect - control his brain. He can, in a very fluid, easy way, shift his brain function and alter his brainwaves.

More than answering questions, the voyage we took into the mind of a mystic brings intriguing questions for study.

Appendix

Are there techniques we can learn and teach that will bring balance and peace into people's lives?

Can we invoke a healing response or accelerate healing through specific training?

Can we learn techniques that will allow us to control pain or alter the course of a disease?

Can we learn to activate what I call our D-spot, thus putting us in instant connection to delight or the divine?

The results from our study of Swami are new pages in our world's growing book of research on the brain.

There continue to be indications that the human mind may be able to choose to heal the body.

We're now looking at the possibility of people learning and acquiring these healing capabilities, an event of immense benefit for humankind.

The potential for altering the rates and progression of many diseases - heart disease, cancer, arthritis, alcoholism and many others - is beginning to look achievable.

Swami is a bridge between the invisible, ancient world of mysticism and the modern,

From Ignorance to Enlightenment

visible world of science and discovery. As brain research continues on a widespread basis, and as we appropriately bring the phenomena of mysticism into the realm of science for further study, we are taking strides on a path of hope and health.

'Spiritual healing' as recorded by Science - astounding observations...

Swamiji met with Dr. Collins a leading Researcher and a practicing Neurofeedback in St. Louis, on 14 April 2005 in St.Louis, USA.

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Whatever takes the left brain several minutes to process, the right brain will process in half a sec (i.e. the right is 100s of times faster than left brain)!

Swami's right brain was much more active compared to the left.

The right brain was also in the timeless zone (no concept of time).

3. The strength of the waves implied a tremendous level of metabolic activity.

Dr. Collins stated "If I had done this, I'd be fatigued and sleeping by the time its over!" But of course, Swami felt refreshed after healing, and this was unbelievable for the doctor.

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Appendix

At the same time, from David's brain readings:

1. Certain high frequencies that we don't normally produce, were being produced by his brain.

o These high frequencies are generally produced when we integrate information, or an epiphany happens.

o If and when they are produced, they occur for a very short duration (about one second) and are easy to miss.

2. In David's brain, not only were these waves being produced, but they were maintained during the entire healing period!

3. Dr. Collins commented, "The world is not going to believe this! This is extremely unusual....its seems as if his brain was changing and 100s of 1000s of neurons/nerves in the brain was being re-wired!"

4. The sustained levels of high frequency waves also meant a very high metabolism of the brain.

o Dr. Collins described it as equivalent to running at your fastest speed for 20 minutes.

o Based on that, he concluded that David will be exhausted after the healing.

o On the contrary David didn't feel tired, and instead he was refreshed and he wanted to walk!

In this phase, Swamiji created the same healing energy, but instead of directing it to one person, he simply radiated it. Dr. Collins once again recorded the brain activity in Swamiji and David, and found that:

1. The high freq. waves continued to occur in David's brain (i.e. re-wiring of the brain continued to occur).

2. There was still a significant difference in the strength of the high frequency waves in David's brain.

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Appendix

receiving subject during the healing by Swamiji and also when Swamiji was sending healing energy into the room, not specifically directed at the subject.

Some of our centers worldwide

Visit your nearest centre for FREE Ananda Healing service.

Some of these centers also offer Books, Audiotapes, Malas and other items from the Divine Shop.

Visit www.nithyananda.org to keep track of the various activities of the movement world over.

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Appendix

Col. Selvaraj

No. 41, MIG Officer's colony,

Banaswadi Road

Bangalore 560 033, India

Ph.: 25460360 / 57650948

Chennai

Sri Nithya Divakaran

(G.Ramesh)

Hotel Kanchi, No. 28 Ethiraj Salai

Chennai 600 008, Tamilnadu, India

Ph: 044-28271100 / 94440 19791

Sri Ananda Subodhan

(SR.Jayapal)

42 / 6, Seven hills Avenue,

Poonamalle Road,

Ekkattuthangal, Chennai 600 097,

Tamilnadu, India

Ph.: 044-42719867 / 98408 88019

Email: [email protected]

Hyderabad

Vijaya Reddy

No. 1048, Road No. 52, Jubilee Hills,

Hyderabad - 33

Andhra Pradesh, India

Ph.: 040 - 23545809 / 93410 35463 /

93910 35463

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Appendix

Namakkal

Smt Sasikala Sounder

(Ma Ananda Tejasvini)

M1 - 21, Mullai Nagar, Mohanur Road,

Namakkal - 637001 India

Ph.: 04286 - 221377 / 94432 21377

Pondicherry

Sri Balachander

Annai Dental Clinic

No. 63, West Car Street, Villiyanoor

Pondicherry - 605 110 India

Ph.: 93454 01186

Rasipuram

Sri Ananda Sadhu

(Thyagarajan)

'Sri Nithyanandar Illam'

No.35, Kamaraj Nagar, Pattanam Road

Rasipuram, Namakkal - 637 408, India

Ph.: 04287 - 224770 / 94420 23021

Salem

Salem Dhyanapeetam Branch

No. 36 / 1, Kamakshi Ammal Street,

Near Gluni School, Peramanur,

Salem - 636 007, India

Ph.: 0427 - 3098133

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From Ignorance to Enlightenment

Thiruvannamalai

Dr. Nithya Sai Prasanna

Vasantha Hospital,

No. 55A, Chetty Street,

Thiruvannamalai - 606601. India

Ph.: 04175 - 395858 / 94433 252138

Villupuram

Sri Anandha Anjika

(Raveendran)

13, Bhawani Street, Alamelupuram,

Villupuram 605 602, Tamilnadu, India

Ph.: 04146-251143 / 94432 85685 /

98650 06191

MALAYSIA

Palaniappan

80, Jalan Kapar, 41400 Klang,

Selangor, Malaysia

Ph.: 3371-3242 / 3342-6842

SINGAPORE

Apurvi Sheth Mirpuri

06-15 Westwood Apts.,

15, Orchard Boulevard

Singapore 247855

Ph.: 65-6733-6831 / 65-9738-3511

Email: [email protected]

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Missouri

Ma Ananda Satyavani

(Akila K Balram)

12555 Sunset Dr, St Louis,

MO 63128, USA

Ph.: 314-849-6760

Email: [email protected]

New Jersey

Ma Ananda Turiya

(Veena Shenoy)

1 Rose Ct, Marlboro, NJ 07746, USA

Ph.: 732-308-3954

Email: [email protected]

Columbus, Ohio

Ma Nithya PremMadhu

(Vijaya Rao)

8146 summerhouse Dr

11 Suttie Avenue, USA

Ph.: 614-8731019 / 614-657-9346

Email: [email protected]

Oklahoma

Ma Ananda Nirmal

(Bhanu Patel)

1008 Manor hill Dr, Norman, OK 73072, USA

Ph.: 405-447-1569

Email: [email protected]

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Appendix

Texas

Akhila Lakshminarayanan

818 W Royal In, #262

Irving, TX 75039

USA

Ph.: 469-774-5705

Email: [email protected]

Washington

Ma Ananda Tanmayi

(Madhuri Susurla)

15501 NE 10th

St APT#F210

Bellevue, WA 98007

USA

Ph.: 425-957-9964

Email:[email protected]

[email protected]

CANADA

Vancouver

Sri Nithya Prerit

(Martyn Williams)

211 Tamarack Road,

North Vancouver BC,

V7N 1S3, Canada

Ph.: 604-985-2118

Email: [email protected]

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SOUTH AMERICA

Brazil

Mallika Rajagopal

Email: [email protected]

Ram Rajagopal

Email: [email protected]

GUADELOUPE

Filip Rutil

Tel: 06 90 61 45 46

AUSTRALIA

Ms.Lauren

Email: [email protected]

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Appendix

Offerings from Nithyananda Foundation

Ananda Spurana Programs (ASP) or Life Bliss Programs (LBP) are chakra meditation programs conducted over two days, generally weekends, and are designed to unblock and recharge the chakras, the energy centers of one's body, through a meditation package specially designed by Nithyananda. This program has been found to help people in improving their day-to-day life performance, and health. These programs are conducted by Acharyas, ordained teachers, in many countries worldwide.

Other Specialized Meditation Programs of Nithyananda are offered from time to time details of which can be found in our website.

Ananda Galleria, the Divine Shop of Dhyanapeetam offers a wide range of books in English, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Telugu, Hindi, Portuguese, French and other languages, compiled from Swamiji's discourses worldwide. Also available are Swamiji's discourses in English and Tamil, in

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From Ignorance To Enlightenment

The word Yoga has entered the mainstream of English and every other language of the World. Today there are many forms of Yoga advertised from every street corner, from dynamic yoga and hot yoga, to kundalini yoga and enlightenment yoga. Very few remember the great saint scientist Patanjali, whom Nithyananda calls the 'Saintist', who wrote the Sutras, the techniques to liberate the human and to reunite him with the divine that he is rightfully part of.

This book is not a traditional translation or commentary of Patanjali. This is an enlightened Master's answers to the questions that many spiritual seekers have even after going through the aphorisms of Patanjali; for instance, why the common interpretation of a brahmachari as a celibate is so wrong and how it leads to corruption of the mind.

Nithyananda says: if one is to sequentially follow the eight steps that Patanjali outlined 10,000 years ago, one life time is not enough in this modern age to reach what Patanjali taught can be reached. For the modern age a different approach is needed, to cope with the cerebral pollution which people of Patanjali's age were not subjected to.

Read this book to find out an enlightened Master's solution to reach enlightenment!

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-311-4

928 Huntington Drive, Duarte, CA 91010, U.S.A. Telephone Number : 1-626-205-3286 or 1-206-225-4146

India Ashram: Bhyanapeetam Nithyanandapuri, Kallugopahalli, Off Mysore Road,Bidadi - 562 109,Bangalore District, Karnataka. Ashram : +91-80- 56691844 Fax : +91-80-7288207

E-mail: [email protected] URL: www.nithyananda.org