1. isbn 978-81-7992-902-5

Content: Paramahamsa says: People ask me, 'Master do you chant any mantra when you heal? Please teach us and we will also do the same.' I tell you, there is no other secret; I don't chant any mantra. When I touch, I just become the touch, that's all. My whole being touches; my whole being radiates the energy. Your being is nothing but energy. You are alive; touch totally, that's all. It is the totality that heals. Totality is energy.

Content: Life is a deep and personal experience. It is an extraordinary love affair with Existence. It is the path to the ultimate merger with Existence itself.

Content: Paramahamsa Nithyananda delivers astounding truths to help us experience this. He shakes us out of our intellect, into our being. He speaks not philosophy but his own experience. This book is a compilation of talks he has delivered in the USA. Dive in and get a glimpse...

Content: About the Author

Content: Paramahamsa Nithyananda is an enlightened master living amidst us today. With a worldwide movement for spreading inner bliss, Nithyananda offers solutions for things as trivial as every day stress to something as profound as enlightenment. Embracing all world religions as paths to the ultimate Truth, Nithyananda draws people from around the world crossing all societal, cultural, language, age and gender barriers.

Content: Founder of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam and Life Bliss Foundation, Nithyananda focuses his efforts to create a positive transformation of humanity through the transformation of individuals, re-establishing the science and experience of inner bliss or Living Enlightenment.

Content: Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-312-1

Content: Elevate Your Life. Transform Your World.

Content: JAICO BOOKS

Content: www.jaicobooks.com Religion & Philosophy

Content: Rs. 250

Content: Paramahamsa Nithyananda Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Content: Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Content: A JAICO BOOK

Content: JAICO

Chapter Number: I

Chapter Name: DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY

Content: Some time ago there was a popular song that went like this: Don't worry, be happy! Don't worry, be happy! It became an instant hit. There is no wonder in this; we all want to be happy all the time. But we don't experience happiness all the time. We experience only mood swings – from high to low to high again. We feel there is something preventing us from being happy and cheerful all the time. What is it that prevents us from being happy? Why is it that we spend a good part of our time worrying and harbouring negative thoughts? We all carry a laundry list of worries with us all the time. It is very difficult to predict when we are likely to be joyful, but it is quite easy to say when we will be worried!

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: When we run out of worries, we create new worries! We worry when we have no money. We also worry when we have money. We worry if we have no children. We also worry when we have children. For different people, different types of worry exist! Two girls were spending an evening together. They were catching up on each other's lives after a long gap. One of them said, 'I am getting married soon because I am tired of watching television by myself, eating by myself, paying the bills by myself and what not. The other girl calmly said, 'I got divorced because of that.' Worries follow desires just as night follows day! Just as desires have no end, worries, too, are endless, or rather, we choose never to end them. In one of his famous works titled Bhaja Govindam, the great Hindu Master and philosopher, Sri Adi Sankara, sang this verse: 'vruddhas tavat chinta sakthaha' Once you are old, all you can do is worry. When you are a child, you just spend your time playing. When you are a young man, you chase the opposite sex and develop worries regarding that. As you grow older, there are no sound reasons to worry because you will have finished all your responsibilities. But by that time, worrying would have

Content: become a natural thread running in you, so you simply pursue worries without any reason! I am reminded of a joke: One old man was sitting with his grandson in the garden. He suddenly looked at the grandson and cried, 'Oh God! I can't hear what you are saying!' The boy was surprised and replied, 'But I am not saying anything; I am chewing gum!' Anyhow, what Sankara said thousands of years ago still holds true today! The problem is that all these worries have no purpose. And even when they seem to have some purpose, they are really meaningless if you look deeply into them.

Content: A small story

Content: A young and successful New York investment banker visited his psychiatrist doctor one day for relief from stress. The psychiatrist prescribed a vacation and told him to relax. He also suggested he should go fishing as it is a deep relaxation technique. The young banker bought himself some nice designer clothes and special fishing shoes, and the most expensive fishing equipment available, including designer bait. He flew to the suggested fishing location and checked into a modern hotel. The next morning, he woke up early and, following the recommendations of the hotel concierge, he walked down to the riverbank. He chose a shady spot, sat down, and

Chapter Number: 4

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: started to relax with the fishing rod in his hand and a pipe in his mouth. Minutes passed by, and soon one hour had gone past. He wasn't getting even a nibble. He was starting to get irritated. Then he noticed an old man ambling down in worn-out shorts and a worn-out vest, holding a fishing rod made out of some tree twig. The old man settled a few feet away from him downstream. He smiled to himself at the comic picture that he saw of the old man. As he was still struggling to make his first catch, he suddenly noticed that the old man was catching fish at regular intervals and throwing them back into the river. The banker watched for a while and got furious. But there was nothing he could do, so he just sat, sulking. Looking up after a while, he noticed the old man smiling at him from where he was. He was shouting out a friendly, 'Hi!' The old man then walked up to the banker's place. He made a few adjustments to his tackle, replaced the designer bait with some squirming worms he was carrying and soon, the banker too was catching fish! Excited about the turn of events, the young banker asked the old man what he did for a living. The man replied that he did nothing! He just fished and relaxed. The banker couldn't believe his ears. He started explaining to the man how much he was missing by not working as a professional like him in the big city. He told him that he too could

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: make a lot of money by training people to fish, and that he would be happy to introduce him to a whole bunch of rich people. The old man asked the banker what he hoped to do after making all his money. The banker said, 'I plan to make lots of money, to marry and to have children.' 'And then?' asked the old man. The banker said, 'I will build a big house and travel on luxurious vacation tours.' 'And then?' asked the old man. 'Oh, I will finally relax and spend all my time fishing,' the young banker said, 'just as I am doing now.' The old man looked at him and said, 'But, that's what I'm already doing now!' We always live with the notion that we need to struggle and worry and we reserve enjoyment and relaxation for old age times. Be very clear, if you live with this attitude, when you are ready to relax, you will not know how to! We also feel that living a hectic life is the only way to spend our youth usefully. We can live a hectic life. There is no problem in that but we need to live with awareness. If we live with awareness, we will not be giving such advice to the old man. We will have such equanimity of mind that these lopsided ideas will not enter us. If we keep running, our worries only pile up, and depression happens. We forget that in the rat race, even if we win, we remain a rat!

Content: Another small story ne lady was moving house. She had a number of expensive curios that needed to be well-packed and shifted. She had hired some packers, and she was supervising them carefully. As she was watching the men packing up her belongings, she noticed one of them was handling her expensive antique vase carelessly. She warned him, 'Please be careful, that piece is over a hundred years old.' The man looked at her and understood her anxiety. He said, 'Don't worry ma'am, I will handle it like it's brand new!' Each one's worries are different. Each one's worries are based on his or her perceptions; based on individual desires.

Content: Desire is not harmful in itself. Desires are energy, as long as they are our own deep and genuine desires, but the problem is that most of our desires are borrowed desires; they are the desires of other people. Our desires are born from jealousy and greed and have nothing to do with our real needs. It is said that this universe can cater to the needs of its every single inhabitant; however, it cannot fulfill the desires of even one single person!

Content: Just think of all the things that you wish you had right now and make a list of them. Then, make a list of the things that you already have. Now tell me, of the two lists, which one makes you feel happy, and which one makes you feel sad? The answer is obvious. You feel happy about the list of things that you have and sad about the list of things that you don't have. So why can't we choose to be happy? Instead

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: of worrying about what we don't have, why don't we offer our gratitude to the universe for providing all that we have? Whether we want to continue begging for more or to be thankful for what we have is our own choice. We can choose between happiness and sorrow. It is purely our choice to be sad or happy. We have no one to blame. And even after we have acquired something new, what happens? We are happy, but only for a short period of time because once we have obtained whatever we wanted, it loses its importance; it loses significance to us. It is no longer worthy of great joy. So, again, instead of enjoying it, we fuel our greed and move on to other desires, more possessions, that give us no more enjoyment, no more fulfillment. If we understand that each of us is on a different path, we will understand that it is absolutely meaningless to pick up desires from others. It is a big blunder to pick up others' desires because their desires are themselves not based on their true self but picked up from others! For example, you may not be the type who needs a boyfriend but, unconsciously, when you see your friends having boyfriends, it becomes your own desire to have a boyfriend also. You don't even know that you have picked it up from them. You just watch them and imbibe the desire, that's all. The truth is, having a boyfriend is their desire, not yours. And that desire must have come to them through a series of happenings and interactions in their lives. But what happens? It has now become your desire. Then you start pursuing it and suffer all that needs to be suffered through that desire. This is how 90 percent of your desires take shape. And one more thing, every time a desire gets

Chapter Number: 8

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: fulfilled, the first thing that happens in you is guilt! If you observe yourself closely, you will note this. When your own desire gets fulfilled, there will be fulfillment and no hangover emotion. There will be no trace of that desire left. But when a borrowed desire gets fulfilled, there will not only be no complete fulfillment, but there will also be a trace of guilt. So, if you look deeply into this process, you will clearly be able to tell from whom and how you imbibed every desire and how you have allowed it to play upon you. Once this starts happening in you, desires will start to drop, and you will not pick up desires from others also. If you distinguish between your needs and your wants, things will become alright. Once you are able to do this, you will find that you already have what you need! And this is what all the great philosophies have been saying time and again. Awareness of the truth, that we are one with the universe and that the universe bestows upon us exactly what we need when we need it, is enough to go beyond desires. Meditation is a key that can open this awareness in us. Continuous meditation will open a space within us for these truths to enter. Then there will be no need for any philosophy or book or guide. You will just know from within, that's all.

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: COSMIC INTELLIGENCE

Content: Thirty years ago, if someone had told us that information from around the world would be available with a single click on our computers, we wouldn't have believed it, but today it has become a reality. Not only that, most of us cannot do without the Internet. What would not have been believable and provable a little over three decades ago, is day-to-day reality now. We have problems in believing what our ancient sages, the Rishis, said many thousands of years ago because we do not have scientific proof that what they said exists. We do not believe it because we have not experienced that reality. However, once we find a way to experience the truth of what has been said, however implausible it may seem, it becomes reality. I am now proposing a theory similar to what our rishis experienced. Of course, it is not just a theory; it is the truth.

Chapter Number: 10

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: as experienced by many rishis and yogis. If we work on it, not only can we understand it but we can also experience it! Let us try to understand the term, cosmic intelligence. When I say cosmic intelligence, I don't mean the data or information from or about the universe. You can get that from a website. Cosmic intelligence is all about processing the right data at the right time. It is the capacity, the energy, and the power to deal with information at a very elevated level. Generally, any information is recorded in matter or media and can be passed on easily. Intelligence, on the other hand, is pure consciousness, which humans are unable to create, even at the level of artificial intelligence. Computer intelligence is not human intelligence, no matter how much data the processor can crunch, and however fast it may crunch it. Let us look further at what I mean by cosmic intelligence, how to access it and how to make it a reality in our lives. There are many living entities present on Earth, such as plants, animals and even rocks. (Science has determined that these inanimate objects, too, possess some life form and basic intelligence.) According to the yogis, the human body is the most evolved and intelligent system, because consciousness happens only in the human system. Therefore, only humans have the potential to evolve into the next higher dimension. Somebody asked me, 'Why should we meditate? We evolved from monkeys into humans, and, based on the theory of evolution, we should naturally

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: evolve into super humans. What is then the need for meditation? I told him that until we became humans, we did not have consciousness, only instinct, and that was how the natural growth or evolution happened. But humans have one more dimension, called intellect, which controls instinct. Natural growth will not happen anymore just by biological evolution; now it has to be your conscious choice to move towards higher intelligence. A buffalo cannot become a Buddha, no matter how hard it tries. Only human beings can achieve the ultimate consciousness to become a Buddha.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: Patanjali, the father of the yoga system, says, 'When you were a tortoise, all your past life memories were stored in that body. When you died and were born again as a higher level animal, all of that past life was then stored in the animal body. As you gradually evolved to the level of a human being, memories from all your past lives were stored in you. If you know the technique, you can actually tap into any of those memories. This may sound like a theory but it is true. In fact, this theory is the basis on which they say humans can fly and swim without any training. The past life memories just need to be tapped to be able to do these things.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: In Japan, research was conducted where the moment children were born, they were put in water and they started swimming automatically. As children grow, if adults do not tell them that they can't fly, they will also try to fly. The moment

Content: you condition them by telling them that they can't do it, they simply settle down to that as reality. By nature, we have all the required intelligence in our human body. The difficulty is, we strongly believe we are limited. In addition, we don't know the technique to tap into all the dimensions of our being.

Content: I am going to explain, using a small diagram, how our mind resists opening itself to the innate intelligence available to our being.

Chapter Name: Time Shaft - Theory

Content: Present Moment 100 TPS 80 TPS 60 TPS 40 TPS 20 TPS 0 TPS Time Shaft Future Past Each moment slipping from future to past Nithyananda State

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: This is the Time Shaft diagram. Consider time as a shaft which is continuously moving, moving from the right to the left; the future is constantly flowing and becoming the past. The time shaft represents incidents, memories, or cosmic intelligence. Usually our mind wanders between the past and future, jumping back and forth. If we decide not to think about either past or future, we cannot have thoughts, because a thought is nothing but a jump from past to future or future to past. Every thought is to do with some past incident or some future idea. If we take 10 jumps in one second in this fashion, we can say that our TPS or Thoughts Per Second is 10. A person who is restless will have a higher TPS, say 50 TPS. These thoughts are so subtle and swift that it is difficult for us to believe that we actually harbour so many thoughts in one second! But it is true! The mind is like a drunken monkey that jumps from one thing to another without any rhyme or reason. The higher our TPS is, the further away we are from the time shaft, as indicated in this diagram. If we are continuously jumping between the past and the future, we cannot become truly aware of the real past or the real future. To become truly aware of our past, we have to be in the present moment, which means we have to lower our TPS and come nearer to the time shaft that is available to us with the past and future.

Content: Great Masters have access to the entire time shaft because their TPS is almost zero! They can clearly see the past and future. Being able to harness the time shaft is what cosmic intelligence is. When we are able to do this, we are actually in tune with Existence and its play. Once we have access to the time shaft, we can go back in time and get any information. All our past is available before the present moment (left side of the time shaft), and all the future is available after the present moment (right side of the time shaft). The present moment is where the future and past meet.

Content: The lower our frequency of thoughts is, the fewer our TPS are, the closer we are to the time shaft, and the more clearly we can see our past and future. People may ask, ‘Even if we are restless, we seem to remember the past. How do you say that only with fewer TPS we can see the past more clearly?’

Content: With our normal TPS, we may see the past but we see it only as we want to, not as it really is. We see only a few incidents in a few moments and only in the way we recorded it in our system through our own perception. Whatever got recorded in our memory, we will be able to recall or access. But this is not what we are talking about. What we are talking about has nothing to do with memory. It has to do with straightaway accessing the time shaft at will, that’s all. It is a technique. And the time shaft has all the incidents that have happened or are happening, clearly, as they are.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: With our ordinary TPS, whatever we recall are incidents that remain in us because of some connection with our mental setup. For example, if we have a party in our house, when the party is over, we will create a file with what all went wrong at the party, what moments gave us pleasure, etc. We then store these things in our memory. Through this process, we won't repeat our mistakes again and, also, the moments of pleasure that were recorded give us some happiness when we recall them later. So what got recorded is completely our own perception and that, too, is a small subset of what actually happened during the entire party, in front of our eyes and behind it. Now, the time shaft gives access to this second part we are talking about. As the TPS comes down, we will start seeing things as they actually happened, irrespective of whether they happened in front of our eyes or not. We will have a clear idea of all the events that really happened, and of the future too, because the past and future are nothing but two dimensions of time.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: When we touch the time shaft, we will learn wonderful lessons. We will start seeing life with a completely new perspective, with no preconceived notion about anything. We will just take every moment as it comes.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: One of the great enlightened Masters, Vivekananda, beautifully says, 'If you know a handful of clay completely, you will know about all the clay available on Earth.'

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: If we have clarity about the past, we will have clarity about the future. If we do not have clarity about the future, be

Chapter Number: 16

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: very clear that we only remember fragments of the past, as we want, and not as things happened. I don't mean the past in this life alone but the past in all the lives that we have lived. Whether we believe in reincarnation or not, we have had many births; that is the truth, and that intelligence is there in us. Through techniques like meditation, we can lower our TPS drastically. We can be completely in the present moment, and we can touch eternity. Past, present and future put together is eternity. We cannot touch it in the past since it's already gone; we cannot touch it in the future since it is yet to happen. We can touch it only in the present moment. If we can totally relax in the 'here and now', we can touch eternity and become aware of the whole past and the whole future. Whatever I am saying is from my own living experience. I have no other investment in promoting this concept, except to inspire you to understand that it is possible for you. It is like this, a tree is waiting for the seed to rupture, and the seed is waiting for the tree to happen before it ruptures. A seed has to rupture first for the tree to happen, or else the tree cannot happen. A Master is one who has become a tree and tells you that you, too, can rupture and become a tree. The Master is proof and he gives you the courage. It is a simple courtesy. If someone is ahead of you on a busy road, and you call them on their cell phone wanting to know

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: the traffic situation, won't he have the simple courtesy to tell you about traffic conditions? Similarly, it is simple courtesy for me to tell you this honest truth. It can happen in your life, too, with your courage to explore and penetrate the present moment.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: Whenever we experience intuition, or have a déjà vu experience, knowingly or unknowingly, it means that our TPS has suddenly dropped; we become very calm and relaxed, and we get a glimpse of the future. When we are in a truly happy mood, our TPS comes down. This is also why, when we are with a good friend or beloved, time seems to fly but, when we are with someone boring, time seems to move very slowly. When the TPS is high and we are restless, we feel time is moving slowly. In those moments also, suddenly our TPS can take a dip, and a glimpse of the future might be revealed to us.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: People who are time-conscious are in hell. They may achieve whatever they need to achieve in life but inside they will be in hell. Time-bound awareness is a good discipline socially but it is a bondage. Whenever you are attending a business meeting, you need to be time-bound, since you need to be socially responsible. But whenever you can, when you finish your business, relax from the time-bound awareness.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: Just as we relax when we remove our coat and shoes, learn how to relax from time-bound awareness. Do this after you have completed what you have to as a time-bound responsibility. Only when we drop out of time-bound

Chapter Number: 18

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: awareness can we see and enjoy a different dimension of life -the low TPS state. Being time-bound is good for business but not for living, because life is more than just business. I know an enlightened Master who lived in India. He had twenty-five clocks, each set to a different time. When I visited him the first time, I thought he had devotees all over the world and each clock was set to a different time zone because of that! I asked him why he had so many clocks. He replied, 'If I want the time to be 12:30, I choose the clock showing 12:30 to be the current time. If I want it to be 4:30, I pick the one that shows that time. If I want a special time that none of these 25 clocks show, I set the time on another clock and use it!' He was not just a Master; he ran his institution like a CEO. I asked him how he managed it. He said when he left his room, he had a watch that showed the chronological time and he would follow all routines as required: administering, returning phone calls, etc. But the moment he entered his room, he would remove the watch and live with the many clocks. He was able to use time as a tool at his will. If you can live at least for a few days without the awareness of time, you will open yourself to a new dimension of your being. That dimension will be tremendously liberating. And once this happens, when you need to get into time-bound awareness, you will do it perfectly!

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: I did a study and found that, whenever we are not bound by time, our adrenalin level is very low, and we feel a sense of well-being. Whenever our adrenalin level is high, we are constantly tense. We can live all 24 hours of a day in time-bound awareness, but we will naturally always hurry and worry and our adrenalin level will go up, which will lead to heart problems and all kinds of other problems. By the age of fifty, we will be all set to die and have eternity available to us. One who is time-bound can't have a vacation. When he's worrying at the office, he calls it work; when he's worrying at home, he calls it homework, and when he's worrying on the beach, he calls it vacation, that's all. The place may change, but the time-bound mental setup of worrying will not change. People ask me how I speak for many hours without any notes. I tell them it's because I'm not confined by time-bound awareness. Time-bound awareness is the worst conspiracy that society inflicts on you. Slip out of it at least once in a while and you will understand what I call intelligence. Read about any great discovery by any scientist. All great discoveries were made only when they were not under time-bound awareness, when they simply allowed themselves to enter into a new dimension of existing. Where did Archimedes discover his principle? Where did Newton discover the theory of gravity? Scientific discoveries are nothing but eruptions from the cosmic intelligence. When we are time-bound, we are good businessmen or engineers

Content: but only when we reach timeless awareness, and our TPS drops, can we become artists or poets or make radical discoveries. All great truths, scientific and mystical, are discovered only when we are beyond time.

Content: The technique to drop from time-bound awareness is what I call meditation. When we drop out of time-bound awareness, even one idea, even one thought that hits our consciousness, can transform our whole life and the life of humanity. Whatever we can achieve with time-bound awareness throughout our life, we can achieve a thousand times more with one moment of timeless awareness!

Content: For example, can you equate all that you have created with your life's earnings with the productivity of the theory of gravity (which resulted from just one moment of timeless awareness)? Apart from personal comforts and material benefits, timeless awareness can give you a sense of tremendous fulfillment that you have lived your life completely.

Content: A single glimpse of zero TPS is enough to give us the deepest possible fulfillment. That's the ultimate vacation! Unless we know how to lower our TPS, even if we are in the world's happiest place, we cannot have a vacation. If we can lower our TPS here and now, our whole life will be a vacation.

Content: When I was in USA, I saw a signboard that said, 'Disneyland, where the party never ends.' Why do we need a separate place and time to be happy or to celebrate? Our

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: whole life will be nithyotsava (eternal festival) if we can drop our TPS. We will be able to penetrate our whole past as it happened and our whole future as it will happen; we will have tremendous clarity.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: The past binds us again and again. Our future is nothing but an updated version of our past. From the past, we don't want some incidents so we remove them; we want some incidents, so we add them or repeat them. We try to create the same past in the future, with some alteration, more conducive to us. If we don't know our past completely, as it really happened, we will repeat the same things in the future. If our TPS can come down and we understand our past as it happened, we won't repeat the same things in the future and we won't be bound to the past, as well.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: With our ordinary memory, we carry the burden of our past with a strong attachment to it. But when we have access to the entire time shaft, we will neither feel any attachment to anything in it nor we will be influenced by it. We then become karma mukta, liberated from karma, the burden of our past actions, intentions, desires and memories. As of now, we are all under karma bandha, under the bondage of karma, because we have not lived our past completely.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: For example, our childhood always seems golden and many people have the idea of a golden past all the time. We may feel our life in college was great, but when we were actually in college, we would not have really felt that way. Why? Because we feel that our suffering has become too much

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: now, and in comparison, the past seems very nice! Now, we attribute joy to our past, and if given a chance, we want to repeat it, but actually when we lived through it, did we experience joy? No. If we come down to zero TPS, we will understand it wasn't as great as we think. Unfulfilled desires are what I call samskaras. Samskaras will pull us to travel on the same route, again and again. That's why they say history always repeats itself. Not only the history of humanity, but even yours and mine! Take an oath never to repeat the same mistake again and you will never be able to commit any mistakes, because we don't have the intelligence to commit new mistakes! We only repeat our past mistakes because we don't truly know and remember our past. All meditation techniques are ways to bring down our TPS. The vision about the entire past and the entire future is what I call cosmic intelligence. If we bring down our TPS to zero, relax in the present moment, what mystics call cosmic intelligence will become a reality in our life. And no one can dispute the concept of timeless awareness. Just because some news is not in the newspaper, you cannot say it didn't happen. Similarly, just because we didn't experience timeless awareness, we can't say there is no such thing. What we know is different from what is. If we can relax in the present moment, at zero TPS, for at least 11 kshana, we will penetrate the time shaft and alter future incidents.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: Kshana is the time gap between one thought and the next. For each person this time gap is different. The higher the TPS is, the lower the kshana will be and vice versa. If we can stay in zero TPS for 21 kshana, (that is based on our regular TPS state) we will penetrate the time shaft and the future is in our hands. These statements are mystical and based on words of great rishis. Even if we disregard these truths, we can experience it directly.

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: If you sit in front of a person who meditates, or in front of an enlightened man, you feel fresh and attracted to his presence. People often ask me, 'When we sit in your presence, we don't know how time passes; we feel happy. Why is that?'

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: This is because, in the presence of a Master, your TPS drops. If you ordinarily have 100 TPS, and you come into the presence of someone at zero TPS, your TPS will drop to 50; if you were at 80 TPS initially, it will drop to 40 TPS, because the energy is infectious!

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: That's why Sankara, the great philosopher says: satsangatve nissangatvam nitsangatve nirmobatvam nirmobatve nischalatvatvam nischalatvatve jeevanmuktihi

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: It means, when we are in the presence of a man who lives with zero TPS, as in a satsang (satsangs are conducted in the presence of great Masters, living or who have left their

Content: body), we become nitsanga. Our restlessness comes down and we are free of attachments. When restlessness reduces, intelligence is active, the mind is clear and we become desire-less and delusion-less, nirmohavatvam. We then reach nishchalatattva, which is total stillness of mind with no thoughts, and finally, jeevanmukti which is the zero TPS state, or the state of enlightenment.

Content: If we can bring down our TPS, we can penetrate the complete past, future and present. The whole cosmic intelligence will be available to us just like the information from around the world is available on the Internet at a browsing center! I call the third eye or the brow center (ajna chakra) the browsing center! If we can relax in the third eye energy center or the brow center and experience zero TPS, all the past, present and future of our life and others' lives will be available to us. So the brow center is the browsing center.

Content: Questions and Answers:

Content: Q) When we die and the brain stops working, do we have zero TPS? If so, what is the difference between that zero TPS state and achieving the same through meditation?

Content: A) At the time of death you don’t achieve zero TPS state. The brain not working does not mean that you are in zero TPS. The brain may not receive information from the senses and process it but it can work on past memories. Even when your eyes are closed, during dreams, no information is

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: received from the outside but information is processed inside the mind without input from the outside. In the same way, during death, you don't receive information from outside but process information already collected. Death is not zero TPS; only enlightenment is zero TPS. If you browse the website on NDE, (Near Death Experience), www.near-death.com, you will see that an American doctor researched more than ten thousand people who had a NDE. His conclusions prove the great truths of the yoga shastra, which I just told you.

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: The whole Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP), that I personally conduct over four days in India and two days outside of India, is about this one question; what is death and how to be aware at the time of death.

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: In the Bhagavad Gita, there is a profound statement; at the time of leaving the body, if you are aware or conscious, your next birth will be according to your choice, or you won't have a next birth, and you will become enlightened! It is not a mere statement; it is the solid truth.

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: In these four days, I program your mind so that the moment the pain of death happens in your being, you will become aware of the pain and restlessness and come to zero TPS. It is not that this meditation will help only during death. Even while living, you will be able to reproduce the zero TPS state whenever you wish to.

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: A scientist creates a formula to reproduce an experience in the outer world, like the theory of gravity, for instance, while a mystic creates a formula to reproduce in others the same experience that happened inside him, in the inner world. A Paramahamsa is a man who is able to put people in the same experience that happened in him spontaneously, without much effort on their part. All I'm trying to do in these four days is to give you the formula, a meditation technique, through which you can have the same experience that happened in me spontaneously, when I meditated and became enlightened. I try to create the same space in you through a proper technique that works on the seven layers of your body, to give you a glimpse of that experience during NSP. Q) Sometimes we get caught in unpleasant situations, where we need to speak up, but we don't. I'm always being pushed around and don't know how to deal with it. A) A small story: Two friends, both drunk, are sitting in a pub and talking. One guy, fully drunk, says, 'I am scared to go home. My wife will open the door and start screaming and throwing things. I'll have to run inside and hide. Please tell me what to do; how do I escape from her?'

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: The other one is surprised and says, 'In my house, it's the opposite! I bang the door open, throw my shoes noisily around, bang the utensils, eat in the kitchen, bang the bedroom door open, shout, and still she acts as if she's sleeping!' Two different situations: in the first one, the guy is afraid; in the second one the wife is afraid! Any situation depends on how you deal with it. I am not telling you that you should exploit the situation. No! But when the situation calls for intelligent handling to allow certain things to happen and, when people are causing difficulty in making that happen, you can easily make things work your way, that's all. This is a typical example, although the subject used here is not appropriate. So, it is up to you to choose to create the first or the second situation. Don't always choose to be in the first situation; decide to create the second situation also sometimes. It is just intelligent handling with complete awareness about what you are doing. Also, there is no need to give in submissively when you are being pushed around. When you give in, two things are happening: one is that you don't know the knack to handle the situation. The second is, your passive ego gets in the way and protects you from getting into an unpleasant situation, so you give in. This needs to be looked into with a deep awareness. The reason why you don't want to deal with the situation is you are afraid your ego might get hurt

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: in the process of confronting the situation. This is the truth. This is what we call passive ego. Passive ego cunningly wriggles out of a situation, so that your ego remains intact. But outwardly, you will appear to be the helpless victim of the situation. Just come out and bravely confront the situation. Decide not to let the situation suffer because of your passive ego. Let your ego get hurt a little; what is there in it? If you do this a few times, you will not only learn the knack of working around an issue, you will also let go of your defenses and feel free because of it. Q) How do we know which path is right or wrong in general? A) There is no right or wrong in any path. It all depends on individuals and situations. Instead of focusing your energy on analyzing whether the path is right or wrong, if you focus your energy on doing what you do with totality, with awareness, then automatically your intelligence will grow and you will develop a tremendous conviction about anything that you do. Then, what you do will be right; no other go! That is the way. Q) What is ‘mind’ and what is its purpose? A) The mind is nothing but a constant movement from past to future and back. The purpose of it is to do chronological planning but it is used for everything other than that. For example, you need to drive your car and reach a place at a particular time. Chronological planning is simply planning how to go about doing it. You can plan, ‘I will get up at 6

Chapter Name: Cosmic Intelligence

Content: am, get ready and get into the car at 7 am and leave, so that I will reach that place, crossing the traffic, by 8 am which is my appointment time.' This planning is alright. But what happens is, you will not stop at that. You will start worrying, 'Will I get up when the alarm rings? Will I cross the traffic on time and reach the place prior to my appointment? What if a cop stops me and gives me a ticket? Will my appointment work out?' This is psychological worrying, over and above chronological planning. The mind has been reduced to only psychological worrying. It is actually a tool given to you to live more happily, but you use it to give you everything except bliss. I always say, mind your mind, and then you will become no-mind!

Chapter Number: 3

Chapter Name: DE-STRESSING - EASIER THAN YOU THINK

Content: How is stress created in our being and how do we avoid it? Stress is nothing but handling too much information without the capacity for it. When we don't know how to handle the large amount of information that we are constantly receiving, we miss and mess up the whole thing! Studies of the brain have found that the brain receives and processes about 400 billion bits of information per second, but we are aware of only 2000 bits of that information. This means we integrate only a negligible fraction of the information received. Let me present a diagram of how we process information and how stress is created. These are great truths discovered by ancient Masters, and they belong to the whole world, not to one religion or community. Thomas Alva Edison discovered the light bulb. It does not mean that light belongs to him and to his particular community. Similarly,

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: these are great truths discovered in the inner world by great Masters. Once discovered, they belong to the whole world; they are nobody's property and they are beyond religion. Here is a simple illustration of how we receive information and how stress begins to build up.

Content: How the Mind works Conscious Process

Content: Mind This is it -Identification Manas | Memory This is not - Elimination Chitta | DSP Digital Signal Processor Chakshu | Eye

Content: Unconscious Quantum Loop EGO Do This - Decision

Content: Consider, as an example, we receive some information from the eye; you are seeing me now. The information from the eye goes to something called the chakshu, which is like a Digital Signal Processor or DSP. The moment you see me, the visual information is sent to the chakshu, where it is converted into digital signals. Next, the data is taken to the memory or chitta, which starts analyzing the data. It identifies through exclusion, i.e. it decides that the data is not an

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: animal, it is not a plant, it is not a stone, etc. It identifies by saying, ‘This is not; this is not.’ Then, the whole file goes to the mind or manas, which starts asserting the truth about what you are seeing. It says, ‘This is a man; he is a Master; he is teaching meditation’, and so on. Mind makes a positive identification of ‘This is it; this is it.’ Finally, the file takes a quantum leap and goes to the ego. The ego does the analyses of, ‘What is in it for me? How will it benefit me?’ And based on this, the final decision is made.

Content: Between the mind and ego, many processes happen; you start analyzing your past experiences with people who were wearing saffron colored clothes. If you had a good experience with them, you will decide to sit and listen to me; otherwise, your ego will decide that you should get out of here. You decide based on what happens in this zone. I call this the unconscious zone.

Content: Unfortunately, at the conscious level, only information processing is done; all decisions are made at the unconscious level. That’s why, even though you know smoking is bad for your health, and all the available data processed by your conscious mind points to it, you still decide to smoke. Suddenly, you discard all your conscious level guidance and pick up a cigarette.

Content: How does stress happen? We not only receive information through the eyes; we also receive it through smell, touch,

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: taste and sound. Sometimes, we don't even need information from outside; stored information from our memory (citta) alone will start working. The unconscious space doesn't have enough capacity and energy to process all this information that we are receiving. So it gets clogged and gives out illogical and wrong decisions. If we can expand the unconscious zone and infuse silence into it, the stored memories will get burnt out and the stress will be relieved, because decisions will be made not out of any chaotic memories but out of a superconscious or intuitive zone. This unconscious zone which stores the chaotic memories is also called the reactive mind, because it only reacts; it does not respond. Reaction is almost like a reflex action, not coming from any reasonable logic. Responding is coming up with the right response to the input fed. For example, if you have been hurt by someone wearing saffron colored clothes, when you see me, you will suddenly get that memory and you won't feel like sitting here, because in the reactive mind the memory is still alive. The reactive mind is not conscious; if it were conscious, you would realize that I'm not the same person who hurt you; you would not generalize. The problem is, we keep generalizing. We have to live in a localized way, not in a generalized way. There is a big gap between reality and our way of living.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: We have too much load on our unconscious layer and that creates stress. If we can reduce the load and infuse silence in that zone, then, instead of stressing out, we will be creative and make strong decisions with conviction. A person who is stressed cannot be creative; one who is truly creative will be full of life, because creativity comes from deep silence. If you can infuse that silence into your being, not only will you be stress free, you will see one more dimension of your being - intuition!

Content: The unconscious zone can be used in three ways: at the instinct level, at the intellect level and at the intuitive level. If there is too much stress and not enough silence or patience to even receive information, we use the unconscious at the instinct level: for example, the decision to smoke. It is almost instinctive. If we have a bit of silence, we will apply our intellect and use it for decision-making. Then, the decision will be made after exhaustive logical thinking. When we have total silence in the unconscious, we use it at the intuitive level and experience what we call revelations.

Content: All great revelations have happened to people who touched the intuitive plane for that moment.

Content: I once met Dr. Charles Townes, Nobel Prize winner for LASER and MASER technology. He said to me, when discussing his discoveries, 'It came to me as a revelation when I was totally relaxed. Suddenly, a revelation happened to me. I knew the conclusion but not the steps! Later I had to work out the steps to present it to the public.'

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: Infusing silence into the unconscious is what I call meditation or prayer, whatever you may name it. Even prayer can infuse silence. There are so many methods and techniques to do this. With silence, you can handle much more information in a much better way; the quantity and quality of information handled will be higher and you will never experience stress. Studies conducted on meditators and non-meditators, to measure and compare their brain activity using PET scans, have shown that the more a person meditates, the more coherently the brain seems to function, in addition to getting more parts of the brain working! On the other hand, if you just sit in one place and stress out, you will have shoulder pain; you don’t need to do anything physical! This clearly shows that stress disturbs you physically and mentally. Infusing silence into the unconscious can transform your whole life. Let us analyze this concept with your questions.

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: Questions and Answers: Q) When is the best time to meditate? A) Early morning is the best but, in the modern day, we are so busy at that time, so any time that is convenient for you is a good time. For good things, anytime is a good time! If you can sit undisturbed, any time is a good time.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Q) The silence in meditation takes me to such a high but lately, due to a constant ringing in my ears that distracts me, I can't meditate anymore. What can I do about it?

Content: A) When I say meditate, I don't mean concentrate, because the moment you try to concentrate, there will be distraction, and you will feel more disturbed than before! You don't have to control your mind. When I say meditate, just allow the unconscious to be without any information for a few minutes, that's all. Even without outside information, the unconscious will already have information. Just relax until that evaporates. You need to have some patience until then.

Content: Allowing the unconscious to evaporate is the meditation. Here is the Master key for meditation - don't create a thought, don't support it with your attention and don't destroy it. Just let it be. You will see that silence will simply be infused. The moment you start fighting it, you create more confusion and thoughts.

Content: The ringing in the ear, etc. will drop on its own when this happens. The ringing is mainly due to forced concentration.

Content: Q) Some people take out their stress by physical exercise; they don't really need to meditate. What are your comments on that?

Content: A) When you do something physically, without your knowledge you give your mind rest; unconsciously, you give rest to your unconscious. When you work out rigorously physically, you give your mind rest. But it will become an

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: addiction. It will be that, unless you have your workout, you cannot de-stress. This is not good. Also, when you talk and engage yourself without the pressure to achieve something, you give rest to your unconscious. The unconscious is disturbed when you are under pressure to achieve. Whenever you do anything without expecting results, it relaxes the unconscious. If you can consciously create that relaxation, the unconscious will be totally under your control. If you have to de-stress only by talking to others, you have to depend on others. Then it can be a problem to find someone who is willing to listen to you. Keep in mind that he also wants to unload; that is another problem, because everybody wants to unload what's on their mind! We need to understand an important thing - when someone talks we don't really listen; we are only preparing our reply in that time. We are just waiting out of politeness so that he will allow us to talk. So it's very difficult to get people who will listen to us. Instead, it's better to learn a conscious method that will infuse that silence. Q) Classical music relaxes me. How does that work? A) Music is nothing but an expression and experience of meditation. You should understand these two things - at a deep being level, it is an experience and, when it comes out, it is an expression. Not only music, anything that makes

Content: you deeply silent or comfortable, like beautiful scenery, or just sitting by yourself, can reduce stress. However, you are again dependent on something external. Anything that is external can reduce stress only up to the level of memory; it cannot touch your whole being. Anything done from the inside alone can transform your whole being. So it is good, but not better than meditation, because meditation heals you to your core and transforms you.

Content: Also, music, in a way, only soothes you. It doesn’t cause any transformation. Soothing is temporary. It is like a temporary relief from a sore, that’s all. The real thing has to happen from within. You can use music as a tool to inspire you.

Content: Q) Would you consider journaling as a form of meditation?

Content: A) Anything done with your being, in the present moment, can become a meditation, even swimming, jogging, etc. Anything done without bothering about the results can give you silence and peace. If you write something down in a journal, without any ulterior motive, just to be in the present, to enjoy the present, yes, it can be meditative.

Content: But on the other hand, if you write with an attachment to the diary, with an attachment to recording things, it is not ok. If you remain unperturbed, even if the diary gets lost, and, at the same time, when you record, if you record with totality, then things are perfectly alright. That is the scale to see.

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: Q) How do you get to it instantly, like in a car? A) Just as a car has a brake, you have a brake for your mind, too. How long did you take to learn to drive a car? One year You don't even need a year - just give me one month! You took a year to learn how to apply the brake in your car; within just one month, 20 minutes a day of this meditation, you will learn how to apply the brakes for your mind and learn how to drive your mind. Even a month is too much! Q) Where does the breath come between mind and body? A) Breath is the bridge between your mind and body. The physical or gross level part of the mind is breath; the subtle part of breath is mind. Both are related. You can't get angry and keep your breath calm at the same time. If you breathe calmly, your anger will disappear automatically. That is the connection. That is why there are so many breathing techniques. If you can perceive your breath and be aware of it, you can tremendously control your mind, too. There are so many Masters who have attained enlightenment through breathing techniques. Q) How do we reduce stress and anxiety induced by certain bad memories?

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: A) You don't need to reduce the memory; you only need to reduce the emotional attachment to that memory. That is the real cause of the disturbance. That again belongs to the unconscious, as we have discussed. The more you are attached to a particular memory, the more you will replay and relive it. Meditation will heal and integrate your being, and the emotional attachment to the memory will be cleared. Automatically, stress will also reduce. Also, if you have a certain vested interest in replaying that memory, in being emotionally attached to it, then, although you say you wish to get rid of it, you will subconsciously harbour it. If you really wish to get rid of it, you will get over it in no time. Sometimes we like to get into a hole of self-sympathy or some other egocentric emotion by clinging on to some memories. Then meditation first has to clear that mental set-up about it and then clear it. A small story: man went to a nearby village for work and was returning home the next day. From a distance he suddenly saw that his house was on fire. He started weeping and shouting for help. His son came running to him and said, 'Don't worry father, we sold the house yesterday.' He was relieved and started laughing. Then his second son ran to him and told him, 'We sold the house yesterday but we don't have the money yet.' Then

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: again he started weeping uncontrollably, shouting for help! After a few minutes, his wife came and told him that they had gotten the money that morning, and it was safe in the bank. On hearing this, he started laughing once more! Just observe: it is the same scene, same person, and same situation; the difference is just the attachment! His attachment was causing suffering or happiness! It is not even the memory but the emotional attachment to the memory that is the problem. Only meditation can help, because it is like fumigating. It will completely cleanse your being so that any amount of information sent in will be processed beautifully. Meditation is like widening the road. It removes emotional blocks and allows a free energy flow. Q) Does it help with physical pain and ailments? A) Of course it does but, apart from physical pain, the suffering is reduced. Suffering is the idea about physical pain. When you get hurt, there will be pain and suffering. The suffering can be completely removed. Here is a simple technique that you can try. If you have a knee pain, relax and put your awareness on that area and remove the word 'pain' from your mind. Continuously, in your inner chattering, you will be uttering the word, 'Pain, pain, pain.' Just remove that word and be aware. Just like a child looking at a rose, with all curiosity and inquisitiveness, look at your knee with curiosity about what is happening in your knee. It sounds impractical, but try it for a few days; not only will the pain disappear but you will start feeling pleasure

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: in the same area. I can assure you, from my experience of personally meeting a quarter of a million people individually, that this technique works. You see, pain is nothing but energy gushing to the affected area to heal it. By looking at it with awareness, you are allowing the energy to do its healing work. And, when you allow this to happen, you will feel pleasure, because healing is very soothing. Instead, if you tighten up with the word 'pain', the energy is not allowed to do its work and you will land up only in suffering. Q) Many elderly people develop frontal lobe damage in their brain. Does a lifetime of meditation prevent it? A) Yes, it will surely prevent damage done not only to your mind but also to many other parts of your body. Our lifestyle is such that we abuse our body and mind so much that I sometimes wonder how it is still running! Falling sick is not surprising given how much we abuse our body, but, the fact that it is running despite all that, is amazing! Q) How are meditation and illness related? Is cancer a psychosomatic disease? A) Thousands of studies have shown that stress is the main cause of all psychosomatic diseases. In my experience, cancer is psychosomatic. I see thousands of patients and, in India, we have thousands of testimonials and case studies. We are also trying to do research here in the U.S. I can say that psychosomatic tendencies and stress play an important role in cancer.

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: From my own study, I have concluded that, whenever you feel someone else is beautiful and you are not happy with your body, that gap between your mind and body is the main reason for cancer. From talking to patients I have healed, I have arrived at these conclusions but I can’t quantify it with figures. We have more than 2,000 trained healers, doing healing as a service in 20 countries. Everyday, 10,000 people are touched by our healers. From all this, I can tell you that stress is one of the most important factors in most diseases.

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: Q) Can a young child be taught meditation? A) If the child is at least seven years old, he can be taught meditation. Before they turn seven, children don’t need meditation; they are already in meditation. By age seven we disturb them; we start exercising conditioning over their innately meditative state. Then we have to give them meditation.

Chapter Name: De-stressing - Easier than you Think

Content: Q) My daughter is extremely difficult to get along with. She is extremely restless. Even in her sleep, some part of her body is moving. A) How old is she? Five Then it’s just pure energy Ma. We don’t have to control it; why should we control it? It will settle down on its own.

Content: Q) These days, people are very busy. Whether they are 15 years old or 80 years old, is it really important for them to make time for meditation?

Content: A) We always give appointments to everyone but never to ourselves. We must find some time to give an appointment to ourselves, if at all we want to live happily.

Content: Q) Does it mean anything when I see colors during meditation? I see the colour purple when I meditate.

Content: A) These are experiences that happen during meditation. Purple is supposed to be a healing color. It means you are creating silence in your being; you have grown to a certain level in meditation.

Chapter Number: 4

Chapter Name: FROM PLACE TO SPACE

Content: Since ancient times, there has been a tradition in the East to invite an enlightened person to one's place of living or to the place where one does business. What is the reason behind this? Contrary to what we think or understand, home is not a place where you just live. It is the way in which you live! Understand clearly, home is not the place where you live; it is the way in which you live. Home is an expansion or extension of your being. That is the concept on which the science of Vastu Shastra is based. This science is a branch of Hindu Vedic Science that explains the ways and methods of how a dwelling should be constructed. It is based on the basic five elements in the Universe. As we all know, the five elements of the universal energy (known as panchabhoot as in Sanskrit), are Earth, Water,

Content: Fire, Air and Ether (or Space). All the five elements are nothing but forms of the Existential energy. In the Hindu scriptural works, the Upanishad, it is said, 'The whole Universe comes from Energy.' It comes from the Atman (Existence residing in each individual). From Atman comes Akasha (ether), from Akasha comes Vayu (air), from Vayu comes Agni (fire), from Agni comes Apaba (water) and from Apaba comes Prithvi (Earth). All these five elements are pure energy and not matter, as we think they are.

Content: Only now, scientists have turned towards spirituality for explanations such as this. Einstein once said, 'What I want to know is God's thoughts, the rest are mere details!' Einstein was an intelligent man.

Content: Before Einstein, scientists dismissed spiritual people as fools or as people who had lost the faculties of their mind. Scientists are so used to working on the basis of logic that they think of ancient Masters as fools or humbugs. In fact, some of the philosophical books classify strong religious faith, spiritual experiences and consciousness as mental disorders of some kind.

Content: For a long time, the logical world thought of the sages, rishis, as mentally sick people and whose words had no relevance in the modern day-to-day world. Their sayings were ridiculed as superstition or senseless rituals. Ironically, it was after a few statements that Einstein made on spirituality and on

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: God, that the logical scientific world turned towards the Upanishads, ancient Hindu scriptures. Einstein said, 'Whatever exists is nothing but pure energy.' The Upanishads made this statement 5000 years earlier in the first line of the Isa Vasya Upanishad, 'All matter arose from Energy.' There is nothing that divides matter and energy. So, whatever exists is, in fact, pure energy. Some of you may ask, 'How is it that matter becomes energy and energy becomes matter?' Such questions cannot be answered by science; they can only be answered by the mystics. When asked this question, Einstein replied, 'Where science ends, spirituality begins!' The last word in science which is, 'Whatever exists is Energy' is the first word in the Upanishads so many thousands of years ago. The first Veda is the Rig Veda and the first Upanishad is the Isa Vasya Upanishad. The first statement in the Isa Vasya Upanishad is 'Isa vasyam idam sarvam' (from this Energy arises all matter). The 'gross energy' is matter; the 'subtle matter' is energy. All the five elements, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether, are nothing but energy. In the East, there is a tradition of worshipping these five elements. Spirituality actually started by worshipping these five elements. In the earliest scriptures, from the Veda and Upanishads, there is no mention about Gods or Goddesses! There is no form that is mentioned in the

Content: Keno Upanisbad; there is mention only of nature. Nature was considered to be the ‘Doorway to Divinity’.

Content: It is easy to recognize the forms of energy as they manifest in nature. The Earth energy is recognized by the power manifested by stones and volcanoes, as the ever-changing nature of Earth, as the powerful deities that are made out of Earth and installed in temples. Similarly, water energy is manifested in the form of floods, rains and holy rivers. The fire energy is perceived in the form of lightning, heat, fire rituals and so on. The air energy is apparent in the form of cyclones, tornadoes and our very breath. It is easy to comprehend these energies, since they manifest or appear physically. However, it is difficult to understand the ether energy, the fifth form of energy. Ether, or the space energy, is so subtle that one cannot see it, perceive it or feel it. The more subtle the energy, the more powerful it becomes and the more difficult it is to appreciate.

Content: Ancient Masters, therefore, created the science of Vastu, to harness the energy of Space, or the Ether, in the correct and proper way. You would appreciate that man has manufactured many pieces of equipment or instruments to use the energies from the first four elements. For example, he has designed an oven to use the fire energy to cook food and the turbine to produce electricity from the water energy. Similarly, our Masters have designed Vastu Shastra to harness the Space or Ether energy.

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: Vastu Shastra is the science of the structure of a building. It is a study to use the Space energy effectively within the house. It deals with how effectively we can enclose space inside a building to optimize its effect on the inhabitants of the house. There are three types of space: Space inside the body, called Chitaakasha Space surrounding the body, called Kataakasha, in an enclosed space Space surrounding the Universe, called Mahaakasha The Mahaakasha is always energetic and pure. The Kataakasha, although pure, can become impure by one's thoughts. The Kataakasha has the property to either gain energy or lose energy by one's thoughts. It acts as if it is a live being. Your house, for instance, is filled with an energy that can easily be contaminated by the thoughts of those who live in it. Therefore, never think of your house as just cement and concrete decorated to your style. It is not just matter; it is a storehouse of energy that has a direct bearing upon your well-being. It has the capacity to exchange energy. Your house is an expression of energy When we compress water or fluids, it becomes energy (theory of Fluid Mechanics). When we compress air, it becomes energy (Pneumatics). When we change the shape of a gross material (the Earth energy), such as iron ore, into a rod or a plate,

Content: it has its own properties. The same material has different properties when it takes up different shapes. If we make the iron ore into a sphere or a ball, it becomes very strong, dense and powerful. This is the way shape and compression affect matter.

Content: Likewise, whenever we change the space inside our homes, the energy changes according to the change in space. This is a very subtle concept and we need to understand this clearly. Once we grasp this concept, we will appreciate the great gift of wisdom that our Masters have given us.

Content: Just as the gross elements can be cast into different shapes to hold different energies, Ether can be transformed or molded into a different space and will radiate a different effect accordingly. Vastu Shastra is a science to make the best use of the Ether energy. It is the technique to use 'Ether Energy' efficiently and maximize the energy that is present.

Content: Ether, therefore, can be controlled in a space, and that, in turn, controls those inside the space. The people who are inside the space, their thoughts, affect the Ether in that space, and the Ether in turn affects their thoughts. You may have experienced that when you sit outside in nature; under a clear blue sky, you feel expanded. Your being feels light and joyful. You feel your personality expanding and transforming; you feel bigger and without boundaries. Whereas, when you enter a small room with a low roof, you feel compressed and limited. Your mind does not feel free and your thoughts do not flow.

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: The dimensions of the room we are in play a major role in influencing our minds and thought processes. Our thoughts play a major role in influencing the place in which we live. A house is not a place where we live; a house is 'how we live'. Vastu Shastra says, 'All that exists in our surroundings, such as people, furniture, all animate and inanimate things, respond to our thoughts.' This has been proven beyond a doubt by a number of pieces of research. An experiment was carried out by placing three rose plants in three different rooms labeled A, B and C. The plants in these rooms were taken care of in a similar manner and were replaced with a new one everyday. However, there was one major difference. The plants in room 'A', while being watered, were cursed profusely and condemned with the worst choice of words. The plants in room 'B' were given a neutral treatment. The plants in room 'C' were heaped with encouraging words of praise and goodwill. The experiment was carried out by different people, twenty-one times a day, for eleven days. The result was amazing! It was found that all the rose plants that had been in room 'A' did not survive and later simply died. The plants in room 'B' grew normally but the plants that had been taken care of in room 'C' grew beyond normal expectations and yielded twice as much! Just by the power of thought and word, the very growth and life of the rose plants was affected. So you can understand the extent to

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: which objects in the surroundings reciprocate or respond to thoughts. In another experiment, equipment (similar to the ECG in a graphical format) that measured vibrations from trees was connected to ten different trees. A woodcutter was asked to earmark one tree with a strong intention of cutting it down. It was found that that tree, alone, showed skewed readings. The other trees read normal. Like this, several experiments have been conducted to show that thoughts affect the animate and inanimate things in the surrounding areas. The Vastu Shastra postulates that all the thoughts in a house are captured and stored in the Ether space in it. The space is, therefore, not dead or insensitive. It is 'live' energy. These thoughts grow like cobwebs. Then, they radiate the same negative thoughts back to us. Therefore, if the inhabitants of the house harbour repeated negative thought patterns, the cobwebs of negative thoughts will get installed in the space within. What can be seen physically can be cleaned. However, what cannot be seen cannot be cleaned physically. Therefore, whether one believes in it or not, whether one accepts it or not, thoughts are stored in the place where one lives. People have asked me, 'Swamiji, when I am outside the house, I feel happy and joyous. Whereas the moment I enter the house, I feel depressed.'

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: The house is Kataakasha, a living space. Grihalakshmi, Goddess of Wealth, is supposed to reside in the space inside the home. Somebody asked me, 'Swamiji, I want joy and bliss to flood my house.' I told her, 'You will find it when you yourself radiate joy and love and shower your love and affection on your children and your husband. Meditate and radiate positive vibrations first, yourself; that is the best way to open your doors to Grihalakshmi.' She then immediately asked me, 'Swamiji, shall I then do Grihalakshmi puja (offering or worship)?' Please understand that it is all right to do the puja but what is the use when, after the puja, you come out of the puja room and do an archana to your husband! (archana means prayers. Here it means an outpouring of negative words!) Puja to Lakshmi and archana to the husband! Will it help? No! It will in no way help. Your thoughts and words continuously energize the house in your presence. Therefore, it is up to you, whether you want to energize it positively or negatively. Unfortunately, most of the time, we are expressing words that are only complaining or expressing discontentment of some sort. Do we ever remember talking positively about our own health or about other people or about our work at home or office? Do we ever recall saying nice things about what is going on in the world, about the beauty of nature or about how wonderful it is to be alive in this wonder filled Universe? No! We release only negative

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: emotions and words within the space where we live, and this contaminates and pollutes the space completely. A flowing river is pure. If it stagnates, it becomes impure and foul. It gets covered with scum. When a person enters such water, he, too, gets covered with the scum. In the same way, the energy inside a house needs to be flowing; only then life in it will be bubbling with joy. If there is negativity in the space inside the house, the energy gets clogged and stagnates, and it affects the people in it. When this happens, you start complaining that, when you enter your own home, your joyful mood takes a dip into an all-too-familiar hole of depression. A small story: Two friends met up after 10 years and decided to have lunch together. They discussed many things, from marriage to career to social life. One of them asked if the other was leading a happy married life. The other asked him a question in reply, 'Do you know what it means to come home to a wonderful wife and two adorable kids who think you are the best father in the world?' The other replied, 'Wow! It must be awesome....' The first man finished, 'It means you are in the wrong house!' You see, this is how each one feels about the other and the house!

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: Anyhow, when a Master, who is the embodiment of the Existential energy, enters a house, when he sets foot in a house, he is like the Mahaakasha, a flowing river or open sky that is entering. The enlightened person is the Universe in himself, because there is nothing inside him. He is just a hollow channel for the Existential energy to flow. He has no thoughts, good or bad. He is just emptiness, an open sky. It is through him that the energy radiates. People ask me, 'Swamiji, how do you heal? Do you chant any mantra or do any sankalpa for the person to be healed?' I do neither. In fact, I don't even consciously think that the person should get healed. I don't even wish for the person to get healed of whatever diseases they might be suffering from. I just give them the Presence and healing happens! When somebody comes, I just touch them; I allow the energy to flow; I let go of the energy and allow it to do what it wants. The healing happens, that's all. Master means, a person with no thoughts or with no mind, who is the representative of the Mahaakasha, Universal space. When the Mahaakasha enters the Kataakasha, that is the space in the house, it is simply flooded with energy. It is like a big river entering into a small pool! The dirty pool is simply washed away, cleansed and filled with pure water. When a Master enters the space where you live, it is simply rejuvenated or recreated. It is said that the Vastu (matter)

Content: becomes Vastu (space where you live). That is why we say, place or matter is different from the space. Remember, the place can be cleaned by a vacuum cleaner, whereas space can be cleaned only by your meditation or by a Master’s presence! When people gather too much dirt (negativity) in the space where they live, it can be cleansed or burnt by the Master’s presence, in a moment.

Content: These concepts are too subtle to be understood by logic; they can only be understood by examples and by understanding them step by step. Let me tell you, where logic ends, great things begin to happen! Great things never happen by your logic. If they do, then logic becomes greater than God and it can never be.

Content: People ask, ‘Swamiji, why don’t you prove the existence of God; why don’t you prove it by logic?’ I tell them, ‘When you try to prove God by logic, then logic becomes greater than God!’ God is great, because he is greater than, or beyond, logic. He cannot be measured or attained by your logic. These are the subtle truths; they are so profound that they cannot be understood by logic.

Content: It is as simple and as profound as the existence of the sun. Whether you want it or not, believe it or not, the sun will always rise in the East. One may try to prove logically that the sun does not rise in the East, but can that change the existence of the Universal Truth? The sun will always rise in the East. Truths are of two types: evidence based and

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: experience based. The existence of God is the truth that has been experienced by the great rishis. Whenever an enlightened Master or a spiritual person, such as a saint or a seer, enters a space, the space is simply flooded with energy. Many come to me and say, ‘Swamiji, what magic have you done? Ever since you stepped into our house, so many good things have started happening!’ I tell them, ‘I have not done anything, and that is the magic!’ So many of you always try to do something or want to do something and end up with something different in trying to do something else! But a master does nothing. His presence does everything. Therefore, whenever a ‘nobody’ enters the space, i.e. a man who has become the akasha (the ether), the whole space becomes ‘spaciousness’. A man who is enlightened is mahaakasha; he is ‘without boundaries’. A man who is limited by boundaries is chitaakasha. So, when a chitaakasha becomes a mahaakasha, and enters a kataakasha, the whole space is cleansed and flooded with energy. The ‘space’ becomes ‘spaciousness’ and it comes back to its original pure state of life. That is why it is said, ‘Tirtiye kurvanti tirtinah.’ When an enlightened person enters a place, it becomes a ‘Tirta’ (a place of pilgrimage near a holy river). Gribalakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth who resides in the house, enters into such ecstasy, that the place becomes a ‘Tirta’. It is also said that, when we go and bathe in the sacred river Ganges, all

Content: our sins are washed away. Whereas, when an enlightened person goes to the Ganges and dips, the Ganges is cleansed of the sins! It becomes pure and holy!

Content: This is what Ramakrishna Paramahamsa also said when he was asked why he went on a 'Tirta Yatra', pilgrimage to the holy water spots. Wherever he dipped, the water got purified. Masters descended with the tremendous responsibility of bringing good will to mankind. So they do all that they can, in whatever way that they can, to fulfill this responsibility.

Content: Questions and Answers:

Content: Q) Swamiji, we have so many Gods and Goddesses in our house. How does that help in cleansing the house?

Content: A) When you have real respect and adoration for the Gods and Goddesses, your mind acts like a bridge to bring the Mahaakasha in. The faith and the trust act like drill bits to open and bring the Mahaakasha into the Kataakasha. The faith and trust make the idols alive. If there is no faith or trust, then it is just a stone statue.

Content: Just having belief will not do. You should have faith. Belief is different from faith. Having belief is just like having a secret wish that something is true. It is not deep rooted. Faith, on the other hand, is an experiential feeling or emotion. It is deep rooted and can become unshakeable if it is allowed to grow in the right direction.

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: But some of us have faith of convenience! If we pass our exams, then Lord Ganesa is worshipped. However, if we fail, then our idol, Lord Ganesa, hits the road! This type of faith is not good. It is only if you have the real feeling that the photos or statues of the Gods are embodiments of energy, will you be able to feel how they cleanse the whole space. Faith and trust have the unique power to expand the Chitaakasha. It is said that the faith of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gave life to a statue of Goddess Kali. In the temple of Goddess Kali in Dakshineshwar, the deity has four hands, of which one hand holds a sword that can be removed, and another holds a skull that cannot be removed. It is a practice in the temple to adorn the Kali deity with conch bangles on her hands. It is easy to insert the bangle on three hands, including the one holding a sword. However, inserting the bangle into the hand holding the skull is not possible. The temple priest used to put the bangles on the three hands and place the fourth at the feet of the Goddess, as it was impossible to put it on. Ramakrishna said, 'Why can't you put it on?' He went inside the sanctorum and put the bangle on the fourth hand.

Content: The priest was surprised and asked if Ramakrishna broke the hand. Ramakrishna replied, 'Why, what is the need? I just told her to put the skull down for some time and I inserted the bangle. Now she's holding the skull again?'

Content: Such was his faith in Mother Kali that the deity simply did what he requested it to do. Even now, you can go and see the idol. They allow you to go and touch the idol there. You can actually see the conch bangle without any breakage and the hand also intact.

Content: When you feel that the deities are alive, they become real energy centers. They become your bridge to the Universe.

Content: Idols are not mere idols; they are energy. That is why I say, worship is never of the idol, it is through the idol, the Existential energy.

Content: In the Hindu sect of Vaisnavism, there is reference to a Divine incarnation, or avatar, called the Archaavatara. Apart from the dasavatara (ten living incarnations of the Lord) that are described in the Hindu epics, they believe in one more avatar, wherein the Lord takes the form of whichever idol you have immense faith in.

Content: So no logic can explain these phenomena or concepts. Trust has got a tremendous capacity to create a bridge between you and Existence. Never think that anything is dead matter. Everything is 'live' energy.

Content: Q) Can singing bhajans (devotional songs) create positive vibrations?

Chapter Name: From Place to Space

Content: A) Surely they do. Bhajans are positive energy. The problem is that we do not understand 'emotion'. That is why I do not delve on bhakti and prayers, because prayer cannot happen unless one has had a glimpse of meditation. Unless you have had a glimpse of the energy or the ecstasy, prayer cannot happen, and then, whatever you do is like putting up an application with no proper credentials. All applications without proper credentials are simply consigned to the dust bin! So, when you have not experienced something on your own merit, it gets wasted and there is no benefit from it.

Chapter Name: MASTER - THE MASTER SURGEON

Content: A Master is a person who removes the ultimate cancerous tumor that happens to our being, which I call Ego. A Master does surgery on that tumor. He never allows you to be stuck or comfortable with anything less than the enlightened state. Even when we start progressing spiritually, at some point, without knowing it, we get stuck in some layer and remain there with suffering. In all these situations, the Master will push us again and again to move forward. He never rests until he transforms our whole life. Whenever a surgeon comes with a knife, we think he is going to hurt us but the knife of a surgeon is not for killing. It is for healing. In India, Gods have swords and many other weapons, that symbolically and metaphysically, represent that they are surgeons who will remove our ego. Goddess Kali has a big knife in one hand and a severed head in the other. The severed head represents the ego and the sword

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: represents the knowledge or the wisdom that has destroyed the ego. Let me narrate an incident that explains how the Master takes care of the disciples and never lets them get stuck at any level. Not only that, even when the disciples feel cozy and secure, the Master shakes them up and makes them aware that what they think of as security is actually just another way of getting stuck, and that they should move forward. This is an incident from Sri Ramakrishna's life. He was a great spiritual Master from the last century who, in turn, had a Master called Totapuri. Ramakrishna used to meditate on a particular form of the goddess Kali and was living his life happily with that form. Suddenly, one day, Totapuri, an old monk, appeared and asked him to go beyond the form of Kali and not meditate on it. Totapuri was a Master of advaita, non-dualism, which is based on the formless reality that the individual is one with the Divine. Ramakrishna was surprised. He said, 'The form of Mother Kali is so beautiful that I feel totally connected to it. Why should I not meditate on it?' Totapuri replied, 'Forms are always ephemeral; only if you go beyond it will you experience the eternal bliss of the Universal consciousness.' When you meditate on a form, you feel comfortable. You can project your entire ego on that form and feel satisfied. If you want a caring and loving mother, or if you are missing

Content: a caring, loving father, you can always project that onto the form you worship and think of it as a caring, loving father or mother. The more strongly you visualize, the more the visualization will become a reality.

Content: Ramakrishna felt what he was so strongly visualizing was reality. He was happy but it wasn’t the ultimate truth. So Totapuri did not allow him to stay there with his ephemeral happiness but inspired him to go beyond the form into the formless, which is Eternal Bliss. He advised him, in fact forced him, to visualize destroying the form, in order to have the formless experience. Ramakrishna was an intelligent disciple. He did as he was told and reached Eternal Bliss.

Content: The Master ensures that we are not stuck anywhere and that we reach the ultimate. That is why in the East, so much importance is given to the Master. The West only knows about teachers. The idea of a spiritual Master exists very meagerly in the West. However, in the East, gurukul, or the traditional schooling system that imparts spiritual education at the feet of great Masters, is very popular. Even the regular non-spiritual education was received only from Masters, not from teachers.

Content: The difference between a Master and a teacher is this; a teacher is a person who knows intellectually, while a Master is a person who knows experientially, who has experienced what he is speaking, the truth. Ancient Indian kings, if they wanted to learn archery, would go to a Master.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: Everything, including art and science, has a sutra, an aphorism. At the age of seven, a child would be initiated into meditation, which he would practice until fourteen. If he had his first spiritual experience by then, he would study Brahmasutra, the great literary work which imparts advanced spiritual truths, and take up monkhood, sannyas. Otherwise, he would study the intricacies of life through the study of Kamasutra (the science of sex appropriate to married life) and enter into married life.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: Everyone was happy, because they were properly guided by enlightened Masters to live a life that was best suited for them.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: A teacher teaches through verbal language, while a Master teaches through body language.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: It is known now that ninety percent of communication happens through body language alone. The direct touch and presence of a Master can transform and awaken a person by creating such a space within him.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: Let me narrate a beautiful story which Vivekananda, a great Master from India, used to narrate:

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: There was a lioness in a forest, close to giving birth any day. One day she was searching for food. She saw a herd of goats and ran towards them. While attacking the goats, she gave birth to a lion cub and died. The cub was left orphaned with nobody to attend to him.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: The goats looked at him, felt pity for the helpless cub and took it with them and raised it. And, of course, the cub started living like a goat, drinking goat's milk and eating grass! The cub believed that it, too, was a goat. You see, purely based on our upbringing, we have an idea about ourselves. Anyhow, after a while, a lion attacked the goatherd. When he saw the lion cub, he was astonished! He wondered how on Earth a lion cub was living with a goatherd, eating grass and drinking goat's milk. He stopped chasing the goats and went away. The next day he returned, determined to find the lion cub. He watched the cub from a distance and when he found that it had strayed away from the goatherd, he simply picked it up and took it away from the goats. The cub pleaded with the lion not to kill it. The lion tried his best to convince the cub that his aim was not to kill it. He also told the cub that it was not a goat but a lion. The cub was gripped by terror of the lion and refused to believe both the statements. He pleaded to be left with the goatherd. The lion left it but was determined to make it understand who it really was. Over time, when the lion did not attack the herd, the cub started trusting the lion and allowed itself to be taken away by the lion. It even started getting attached to it. One day the lion took the cub to a nearby river for a picnic. He slowly took it to the river and showed it its reflection. He asked

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: if it could see that his own reflection and that of the cub were the same. The cub looked at the reflection and remained silent. The lion took the opportunity and made him eat a piece of meat. The cub swallowed the piece of meat, and suddenly dropped his fear and let out a roar! This is exactly what happens between the Master and us. When we see the Master, and he says we are not as we think we are, that we are not human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience, not only are we not ready to believe this, but we are acutely uncomfortable as well. We feel he is preaching his ideas and trying to convert us. We get frightened and want to run away. As long as he is joking around, it is fine but, when he starts telling us some truths about ourselves, we get frightened. We want to be happy with our goatherd; we want to be stuck with our regular life of wife, children, work, pain and pleasure. So the master also plays the game and tries to raise in us the trust in him. He acts like a goat to make us comfortable and feel that he is one among us. After some time passes, he catches us and tries to give us the same truths. This time, we listen to him with lesser resistance, although we are still resistant but, by now also, we start thinking of the Master more than we can help. We feel an attraction to him despite our fear. We start remembering him, his presence, his words. He becomes almost a part of our being but still, we are not ready to accept what he says; we play a game of hide and seek.

Content: At some point, when he sees that he has instilled a strong trust in us, he catches us and shows us that we are the same as him! He shows us that we, too, can realize the truth and eventually be like him. He forces us to experience that we are lions. That's what I call initiation, or the first experience! He forces us to experience that we are lions but, even after that experience, people deny it.

Content: Eventually, the Master makes us experience our true nature and gives us the ultimate freedom. Then and only then, do we realize that we were always a lion! He only shows us what we already are but can't see. It is a beautiful game that he plays so patiently, so compassionately, despite our resistance and lack of trust in him.

Content: We don't have to become something new, we just need to wake up and realize our true nature. The Master never allows us to stop at any step. Again and again, he inspires and takes us to higher levels of conscious experiences, till we realize we are That, till we realize our true potentiality, the Ultimate Truth.

Content: A small Zen story:

Content: A disciple grew up with the Master from young age. He used to imitate the Master. The Master, while speaking, always did a certain action with his hand, by making a fist with the thumb pointing up. The disciple, too, would do the same when the Master gave discourses.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: One day the Master took a sword and cut his hand off! The disciple had so much trust in the Master that, without any doubt, he felt whatever the Master did must be good for him. That very trust transported him to a higher level of consciousness and he suddenly experienced enlightenment. The other disciples, who took care of him, asked the Master why the disciple had to lose a few fingers to get enlightened. The Master said, 'People lose many lives to get enlightened, so losing a few fingers to become enlightened is not so bad!' This is the ultimate trust in the Master. It is beautiful purely by virtue of its purity.

Content: Another small Zen story which I want to tell: Zen Master was walking on the third floor balcony of a building, with the disciple walking behind him, asking for guidance to become enlightened. Suddenly, the Master turned and pushed him off the balcony. The disciple was so deeply connected to the Master that he felt there must be something good in what the Master did. While falling down, he felt like he was floating. The story says that, when he touched the ground, he touched heaven. He became enlightened!

Content: These stories clearly show that pure trust in the Master is enough; nothing more is needed. The Master never allows anyone to get stuck with ordinary experiences. Even though we may call it a spiritual experience, only when we stop

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: experiencing anything, do we enter into the real spiritual experience. Only in such an experience, the experiencer, the experienced and the experience all disappear into one; all three merge into the experience. Only 'we' remain. Even the word 'we' can't be used since there is no other. All boundaries are lost!

Content: Unless that experience of tat tvam asi, 'That art thou' happens, the Master never rests. The Master is the ultimate Master surgeon who removes the ego at all levels, physical, emotional and spiritual. People have spiritual egos when they have a 'holier than thou' attitude. The Master will never allow you to be stuck in this area especially. He will push you forward till you experience the Ultimate. The more you allow his surgery to happen, the more you will realize the truth. A few people run away from the operating table during surgery. That is dangerous. Before surrendering to the Master, you can do the entire checking, verifying, window-shopping etc., but once you surrender to him and he starts the surgery on you, you have to allow him to work on you.

Content: It will be painful, the surgery. Unless he hurts you, he cannot perform the surgery but the hurt is only because of your own tumours, your own ego. And he knows exactly where the tumours are. He will place his hands exactly where the tumours are. That is the problem!

Content: So, let us pray to the ultimate Master, the divine Existence, the cosmic energy, to do the Master surgery on us to give us eternal bliss - nithyananda!

Chapter Name: Questions &Answers:

Content: Q) How does an enlightened person react to the physical environment? A) In the same way that an ordinary person does. There is a beautiful statement: before enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain, a tree is a tree, a river is a river; while seeking, a mountain is not a mountain, a tree is not a tree, a river is not a river; the seeker is confused about them. After enlightenment, again, a mountain is a mountain, a tree is a tree, a river is a river! After enlightenment, things seem to be the same; the enlightened person sees it all from a different plane. A normal person always sees things in a distorted way, as he wants to see them.

Content: A small story: An old lady who was particularly obsessed about looking good, walked into the beauty parlour one day. She asked for the beautician and started chatting with her. The beautician was a very practical lady and told her not to be worried so much about her physical appearance and that it was enough if she looked neat and presentable. The old lady said, 'No, you don't know. My latest problem is I am getting wrinkles around my eyes.' The beautician looked at her and said, 'I have a solution for that!' The old lady asked her eagerly, 'What is it, tell me. I don't care how much it costs.' The beautician replied, 'Just take off your glasses when looking into the mirror!'

Content: Everything depends on how you see it! Perception is what makes each one's world different from the other. You can make or break things with your perception. Depending on where each one is stuck, the world can cause havoc on them. An enlightened person, on the other hand, sees things as they are, with neither hatred nor attachment, with neither greed nor detachment. That is why they live a liberated life while they are living.

Content: Q) How do we distinguish between allowing life to flow and laziness?

Content: A) In laziness, you will always be tired. The more you rest, the more tired you will be; you will be tired of taking rest! There will not be any energy flow in you. There will be no sign of growing intelligence in you. Neither others nor yourself will be inspired by you! Your presence will not contribute positively to the environment you are in.

Content: On the other hand, if you have understood what letting go and allowing life to flow means, you will work with great zeal. You will be bubbling, alive, fresh and radiating energy, because you will have given up the attachment to results to the Supreme Life Force. The quality of your work will be totally different. You will radiate inspiring energy to others.

Content: If you are confused about which category you fall under, then you are in laziness only, because, if you have surrendered to the flow of life in the right way, you will have no doubt or confusion; you will be only in ecstasy! So, if there is doubt, then you are in laziness.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: Q) Can we, the untouchables, ever find enlightenment? A) As long as you have an idea that you are untouchable, you can't find enlightenment. The moment you drop that idea, you can find enlightenment. Nobody is untouchable. The very idea is wrong, and may be due to some inferiority complex. If somebody claims, 'I am holier than you,' then don't touch him; only he is untouchable. Aside from him, everyone else can become enlightened. Q) Comment on the state of the world, environmental destruction, population explosion, wars, etc. Should we not do something about it? A) A social answer would be, you must work for global peace; work for revolution, etc. My honest answer is, transform yourself; you can't do much else. If you could do anything else, you would have done it by now. Over years, people would have done it. So let us at least be honest that we are not able to do anything socially. If each individual, first, became conscious of the violence within and this caused him to transform the base energies within to higher level energies of love and compassion, automatically, we would have mass transformation and peace. There is a lot more attached to this question. We always feel the world is totally spoiled now, and that, in ancient times, the world was beautiful. If you look deeply into history, into the so-called golden past, you will see that, from the Harappa-Mohenjadaro culture that is thousands of years old, they found writings that state that there was

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: so much war in those times, that society was deteriorating and, that in olden times, society was much better! Even at that time, they said what you are saying today of your past! There was no such time when only good prevailed! The idea of a golden past is used only to postpone accepting reality. It is used as an escapism technique. Maybe the news about the bad things in the past did not reach as many people, so they did not know about it but good and bad existed in the past and will always exist. If you awaken yourself, you can go beyond it. If you become enlightened, you can take yourself out of the collective negative consciousnessness, thereby reducing it. That's all. Everybody wants to spread peace according to his or her perception, not according to others. I was in an inter-religion conference the other day, where one guy was preaching, 'All of you accept and convert to my religion so that there will not be any fighting. Let us all take the sword to spread peace.' First of all, why should anyone convert to any religion for peace? This concept itself is wrong. All these claims are with vested interest, nothing else. I tell you, don't fall for any religion conversion. And no revolution will help; it will only make matters worse with mass repulsion. Only individual evolution will help. Individual evolution in a mass way is the only solution. First, make a conscious decision to look into yourself and see where you are contributing to the

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: overall violence and negativity. Then, transform yourself; that is enough. Q) How did you know you became enlightened? A) The moment you become enlightened, the very doubt itself disappears, just as you have no doubt that you are seeing me, just like it is such a clear experience to you, and there is no question about it. As long as the question is there, you are not enlightened. Q) You say that you follow consciousness, not conscience? A) Consciousness is a guru, conscience is not. Conscience gives do's and don'ts, which you will always be fighting. The more conscience you have, the more you will be dead, and the more you will be schizophrenic (split personality). With consciousness, you will be operating out of a space where you will never have a doubt about what is right and what is wrong; you will just do what has to be done, correctly. That is why consciousness is a guru. A guru is one who gives you the intelligence to do things correctly, not one who gives you rules to do things correctly. With conscience, you don't get a feel of your true self because you are operating from a layer of rules, from a layer of right and wrong. With consciousness, you are operating from your core. So the more you do it, the more you travel within and the more you expand.

Content: Q) How can we become enlightened?

Content: A) It is as simple as 1, 2, 3

Content:

1. Start meditating

Content: 2. Continue meditating

Content: 3. Continue meditating

Content: Meditation is the only key to experience that you are enlightened. Start with some meditation technique and surely you will see the Ultimate Truth. Even though you don't believe you are a lion, you are a lion.

Content: Q) Do we need to follow some specific steps, like yama, niyama?

Content: A) Yama and niyama are two of the eight parts of ashtanga yoga. With yama and niyama, even after death, you won't be convinced you did it perfectly. They are nice techniques for you and the Master to escape! For example, if you ask the Master, 'Why am I not yet enlightened?', the Master can tell you, 'Because you did not practice yama and niyama properly.' And you can convince yourself of the same too.

Content: Yama and niyama are nice methods to postpone your enlightenment. According to my experience, for the modern-day man, yama and niyama will happen after he becomes enlightened, not before. For the man of year, who was not so complex in mind, these things would have been easy to follow, and, also, it was created for this type of man. With the evolution of man, the techniques, too, need to be updated.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: Tell me, can you be completely, honestly, truthful? The first rule is ahimsa (non-violence), then asteya (not stealing), satya (truth), aparigraha (living with minimal things), and finally brahmacharya (celibacy). I have seen thousands of yogis but I have not met a single yogi who has accomplished all this and then gone to meditation. Patanjali says ashtanga yoga means 'eight parts of yoga', not eight steps. So, all eight parts should be practiced at a time, not one after the other. That is possible and happens automatically only if you are enlightened.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: Q) How do you release doubt, even doubts about Self?

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: A) Surrender to the Divine saying, 'You are the one who gave me belief and doubt; you keep both and let me be free.'

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: A part of you believes in you and a part of you has doubts about you. Surrender the doubt and faith to the Divine. You want to keep only belief but leave the doubt; that's where the trouble begins. Surrender both; only then you will go beyond both. That is the only way for doubts to disappear.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: Q) You said we don't need conscience. A serial killer has no conscience. How do you explain that?

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: A) I never said you don't need conscience. You have taken one part of what I said as the whole thing. No! A man who has real consciousness can't hurt or kill others, because he feels others as an extension of himself. A person with a

Content: conscience may not kill with a knife but he will kill with words because his being will be violent. With conscience, you may be socially non-violent but, with consciousness, your being itself will be non-violent. What I meant was, morality should be based on consciousness and not on conscience.

Content: A serial killer has no consciousness, which is why he does what he does. When he does not have consciousness, he should have, at least, a conscience or else he will be what he is. The fact that he does not abide by societal rules, what religion and moral studies would term as conscience, is only a secondary issue arising out of the first. If he had consciousness of his existence, he would be aware that he is the same as every other being and would not harm another being.

Content: Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness. In the meditation program called Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP), I help people to get at least one glimpse of deep consciousness, so they can start living with consciousness instead of conscience. Anything based on conscience is skin deep; it is not eternal, but anything based on consciousness is eternal. We should work for conscious experience. Just because we don't have any conscious experience, we should not compromise with conscience. Our morality, understanding, lifestyle, everything, should be based on consciousness. When it is based on conscience, it is based on fear and greed.

Chapter Name: Master - the Master Surgeon

Content: A small story: ne man was very depressed and went to the church to see the Father. He went up to him and asked him, 'Father, I want some guidance from you. My conscience is bothering me.' The Father looked at him kindly and asked, 'Do you want to know how to strengthen your conscience?' The man replied, 'No, I want to know how to weaken it.' This is what will happen to us if we are under the compulsion of our conscience! For example, if the idea that you should not speed is based on fear, when you don't see a cop around, you will speed up. This is what happens when things are conscience based. It becomes tasty to break laws and you feel good about doing it too! Whenever anything is followed because of fear and greed, you will be waiting for a chance to break the rules. Kids saying 'No' to parents has a similar underlying basis. Children feel they have proved themselves when they say 'No'. When they miss school, when they break a rule, they feel good. The compulsion to be under a conscience causes these things to happen. Consciousness, on the other hand, does not give rise to any compulsion. It only liberates.

Content: Another small story: The class teacher asked one boy in class, ‘Tell me, do you use bad words?’ The boy replied, ‘No.’ Then the teacher asked, ‘Do you disobey your parents?’ The boy said, ‘No.’ The teacher asked, ‘Then what do you do that is naughty?’ The boy said, ‘I tell lies.’ When children are brought up under the compulsion of conscience alone, they start revelling in flouting their own conscience. To start with, you need to introduce conscience to them or else they will become loose in virtues but it should slowly be replaced with consciousness. Only then they will fall into the right track.

Chapter Number: 6

Chapter Name: REALITY DREAM

Content: Why do we think the way we think? How does our reactive mind work and what can we do to make our thinking much better than it is now? I will present a few truths about this. We can analyze them with questions and answers, and then we will go for a technique to make these truths a practical reality in our lives. The ancient Masters, the rishis, have done a lot of research on the mind, how it works and how we can develop it to use the system in a much better way; how to handle it better for our success. They have discovered many techniques and methods to express the power of the mind in the outer world. Ancient Masters are inner world scientists. A scientist is a person who discovers something new and creates a formula to reproduce the same thing in the outer world. A Master

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: is a person who discovers something new in the inner world and creates a formula to reproduce the same experience within others. Masters and scientists both work along the same lines but, the difference is, a scientist works in the outer world, while a Master works in the inner world. There are two statements you need to understand. First, whatever we think of as the world is made of the same stuff of which our dreams are made. This is an important statement. If we understand this statement, we can use it for many purposes. For example, the power we use to create our dreams, can be used to create the real world, too. Our dreams are the energy out of which our world is created. Second, whatever we see is created by us, so we have the capacity to change the whole thing! We always think our life is an accident. No! It is not an accident, it is an incident. If we understand this one statement, our life can change in so many ways. It can change our visualization, our thinking patterns and our imagination that creates our dreams. Most of the time, we create dreams that contradict themselves and this causes confusion. The energy wasted in unnecessary dreams could be conserved and put to proper use; then, the reality that we see would be much better than the reality we live in now. We will have the important ability or power to realize our dreams, and more importantly, we will realize that everything we see as reality is also one more dream! These two things

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: together can transform our lives: the capacity to make our dreams into reality and realizing that all reality is nothing but a dream. The powers of intention and creative visualization and the power to use our dreams are very important to create and achieve whatever we want in our life, to create the energy and mood to live, to achieve, to get whatever we want. However, that is only one side of the coin. An important thing that science has missed is the intelligence, the intelligence to realize that whatever we see as reality is nothing but our dream. Only when you understand that truth, you settle down with yourself. The other day, Dr. Murali Krishna, an American doctor and a friend of mine, shared this with me when we were discussing this same concept. He said, 'In our brain, we have something called a D-spot, where the pleasure chemical, Dopamine, is created. Dopamine can be activated just by imagination; you don't even need the reality to feel pleasure.' That is why the ancient sages say, whatever you experience is reality. If you go deep, you will understand it is only a higher level dream, not reality. There are two ways to approach any situation: one is collecting arguments and passing a judgment based on all the arguments; the other is having a judgment and then collecting arguments to support it. Most of the time only the second approach is used.

Content: A small story: Two women were comparing notes about their husbands. The first one said, 'I have noticed your husband sometimes; he would seem to be lost in thought.' The second one replied, 'That's not surprising. He is a total stranger there!'

Content: The lady has already formed a judgment that her husband has no power to think properly! So she says it is not surprising that her husband is lost in thinking! This is exactly what I mean when I say you form a judgment and collect arguments to support the judgment.

Content: In the night time when we dream, we have the capacity to create our whole dream world; we live it and, when we have had enough, we pack up. We have so much energy and capacity to create a world with this mind, we can do wonders but we don't know how to tap into that energy and use it in real life. So many times, in our own lives, we experience the power of our mind but the difficulty is that, from the beginning, we are brought up with certain concepts and ideas, because of which, we miss the real miracles that are happening in our lives all the time.

Content: For instance, sometimes when our cell phone rings, we suddenly remember a friend that we have not been in touch with for awhile; when we answer the phone it will be him on the line! When our doorbell rings, we suddenly remember a friend's name; when we open the door, he will be there. You are at a party and you suddenly think something will

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: happen in the next few minutes and it actually happens. Suddenly, beyond our intellect and logic, something will erupt from our being and we will see that it becomes reality! How many of us have experienced this at least once? If it happens rarely to one person, it can be termed coincidence but, from all of our experiences, we can say that it has happened to many people many times. So it can't be coincidence! Without our conscious awareness, our being is expressing its capacity. Our being is capable of much more than what we can imagine. Our capacity, our power, is much more than what is told to us. From the beginning, we are taught that we are limited!

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: I was living with a tribe in India for some time, during my days of wandering, before enlightenment. You would be surprised to hear that people of that tribe give birth to children without pain, without an attendant, and without any medicine! I myself witnessed it. I asked them, 'Don't you feel pain?' They didn't seem to understand what I was talking about! They didn't even know the idea of pain. Even after talking to them for four to five days, I was not able to make them understand the idea of pain. From the beginning, they had not heard about pain.

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: Then I realized how many times we all hear these words, pain, suffering, etc. When they go into our system again and again, they create an idea of how we are supposed to respond to things with pain and suffering, and we do things in exactly the same way. Then I studied with them and learned some of their techniques: how they respect life,

Content: women, and the knowledge of the ancient Masters. Recently, we have successfully created a system of delivery that is helping women give birth painlessly. After this, I understood how, in this one zone, we create unnecessary suffering and boundaries for ourselves by believing we are too small. There are so many understandings that need to be questioned in the same fashion.

Content: Let me now come back to the first statement – the world is made of the same stuff of which our dreams are made. As of now, most of our dreams, be it daydreams or night dreams, are of no use. Night dreaming is not under our control. In daydreaming, the starting point is under our control but it goes on without our control. We start to dream of something and then it takes its own course and by the time we come back to awareness, it takes so many turns. We start with one subject and land up with some other subject. Only the starting point is under our control. Once we choose the starting point and fall into the track, we get lost!

Content: But in daydreaming, major points are under your control. For instance, sometimes you will find yourself lost in some thoughts, so suddenly you will decide not to think about that track and you will change the track. In night dreaming, nothing is under your control.

Content: Too much energy and power is wasted in dreams that are not directed. In the West, now, they talk about harvesting the power of dreams. You can use the power of dreams. For

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: example, at night before falling asleep, if you contemplate some problem that you want the solution for, and then fall asleep, you will have the solution to the problem! All you need to do is trust that your mind has the capacity. It is our mind that creates the trouble; naturally it has the power to solve the problems, also. All we need to do is trust that we can do it, and then contemplate the problem before sleeping. It will go directly into our unconscious and get processed at night. The next morning we will see that we have the clarity. We don't know the power of dreams. They are so powerful that many times we come upon the dreams that can guide us regarding our future but we don't recognize them. People ask me how to distinguish the dreams that are guidance from general dreams. Here's the technique. When you wake up in the morning, if you can remember your dream vividly in multicolor, if you can smell the same smell you experienced in the dream, if it feels like a real-life experience, be very clear that it's a message for you from your being. On the other hand, when you wake up, if you are not able to remember the dream so vividly, if it's not in multicolor, if it's just in black-and-white, then it's not a message or guidance, it's just related to your fear and greed. Anything related to your intelligence will be solid and vivid; anything related to your fear and greed will be in black-and-white. Even in this world, if you take a deeper look at your life, those memories that make your being blissful, the memories that are the path for your life, will

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: be a solid visualization when you close your eyes and remember them. Any memories related to fear and greed will make you uneasy. I'm speaking of subtle truths. If you are a little introspective, if you are already a meditator, practice yoga, etc., you can understand what I say. The moment you get some thoughts based on fear or anxiety, you can feel butterflies in the stomach, because there is an energy center in the navel that is directly related to depression and worries, and fear and anxiety-based thoughts lead to depression and worry. There are many energy centers in our body that are directly related to certain emotions. If we can handle the emotions with the proper techniques, through what I call meditation, we can open up new dimensions or powers in our being. Even in our day-to-day lives, the moment we remember any thought which is going to help us, we feel at ease and have a cool feeling in our being. On the other hand, thoughts that are not ours, but are imposed on us, or that we have unconsciously picked up from others because of jealousy and comparison, will make us feel uneasy. Sometimes, thoughts can be imposed on us even without our knowledge, through advertisements and media. Media gives us many ideas that are not ours. We are just beautifully exploited without even realizing that we are being exploited! For instance, look at many of the cosmetics products. Advertising agencies know where to touch us; they know that sex is our weakest point. That is the reason

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: why, with any product aimed towards youngsters, you will notice there is sex appeal and this will be directly recorded in your being. If you can be a little more intelligent in your thinking system, you can avoid these traps. Whenever you think, whether while driving or talking to friends or reading, just try to witness your thinking system. Create a gap between you and your thoughts and try to witness them. You will realize you are creating self-contradictory thoughts and dreams. You will realize how you are draining all your energy. First, you will have a thought, 'I should go here and see this person.' Immediately after that, you will have another thought, 'No I should not go; it won't work out.' Before you even consciously know what's happening in your mind, there will be self-contradictory thoughts. When these happen continuously in your being, you live in a space called hiranyagarbha in Sanskrit, which I call 'ultimate chaos'. You are neither moving in this path nor that. You continuously feed both sides. Many times people ask me, 'Swamiji, should I sit here and attend the discourse?' If I tell them, 'Okay, attend it', immediately they will give me all the arguments why they can't. They will tell me, 'Oh! I have so many pending chores to do,' etc. If I tell them, 'Okay, please attend to your work,' immediately, all the arguments as to why they should stay and attend will line up in their mind, and they will say, 'Oh, but I will miss the lecture and all the wonderful things you talk about. This is more important. I think I had better stay!'

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Our mind is such that whichever side we stand on, all the arguments for the other side will come up. Continuously we are in a space called dilemma. If we can give ourselves at least ten minutes everyday, we can sit and see how our mind works back and forth. Just sit and watch it. Don't try to control it; meditation has nothing to do with control. Just sit and watch, like watching a television. Create a small gap between you and your thinking system. You will understand that whatever you think of as reality is made up of your dreams. Above all, you will understand what I mean by self-contradictory dreams. Without your awareness, you are continuously hurting yourself. You are the cause of all your suffering. In the East, we believe that even accidents are invited by us, by our thoughts. You might be shocked when you read this. How can that be true? Why would anyone want to create accidents in their life? When I started analyzing how the mind works, I realized the great truth that even accidents are in fact our own creation. There are a few truths that cannot be explained logically but can be realized from within. A small story: ne man visited the doctor for relief from laryngitis. The doctor gave him a dose of antibiotics and told him, 'This is a heavy dosage with a sedative

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: effect. It might put you to sleep by 9 pm. So for this one week, finish your work early.' The man was listening and looked disturbed. The doctor asked, 'What is the matter? You don't seem to be alright.' The man said, 'I don't think that is good for me because, at 10 pm, I need to take my sleeping pills.' The man was so used to taking sleeping pills all his life, that he could not even imagine sleep without them! When the man goes to sleep by 9 pm and wakes up in the morning, he will understand for himself that he doesn't need his pills! Similarly, if you can create a gap and witness your thinking, you will understand that you create self-contradictory dreams in your life, because of which you waste much of your energy and even create accidents! In our meditation camps, we play a small game where a person has to argue for both sides of a topic given to him. Two chairs will be placed. The participant has to sit in one chair and argue for the topic and then sit in the other chair and speak against the same topic. This is what we do in our lives; continuously inside our minds we argue for both sides, by creating self-contradictory visualization. Your dreams are so powerful that they directly impact the outer world. I was reading a beautiful book called Messages from Water. The author of the book has done research with water, where he has proved the power of thought on just plain water. He has done a big service to the Western logical mind in showing how our thoughts impact the outer world.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: In his research, he took a glass of water and started repeating to it the words 'love' and 'peace'. He then examined the crystals formed by the water sample through an extremely accurate microscope and took photographs of the crystal formation. He took another glass and repeated the words 'anger' and 'violence' intentionally to it and then photographed the crystals formed in it. You would be surprised at the results. Photographs of the water crystals, to which loving words were spoken, were so beautifully formed, like a diamond, while the photograph of the crystals of the other glass, anger and violence, looked so ugly. He proved water responds to our thoughts. It simply changes its whole quality based on our thoughts. An important thing you should know is that eighty percent of your body is filled with water. So, if water is so impacted by thoughts, your thoughts play a major role in your mind-body system. Your dreams play a major role in creating your real world. He explains, in conclusion, why, in the East, people use mantra, why in India people repeat a particular word again and again, to create a particular mood and energy in a person. When I read that book, I understood what really happens when a person repeats certain words. The power of words, visualization, thinking and dreams is tremendous. You can't imagine the power of your imagination. You have so much power and energy in your dreams and visualization. Not only are you not using it, you are misusing it, too! Any energy

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: that is unguided will become misguided. All misguided energy is dangerous for your being. You continuously create self-contradicting visualizations. You can do one more exercise. Just speak your thoughts out, without logically analyzing or suppressing them, and record them. Play them back and transcribe it. If you read it, you will see what a big lunatic asylum you are running inside your mind! It's an asylum of self-contradicting thoughts, self-contradicting visualization, and self-contradicting imagination. If you create a small gap, that is enough; automatically, your visualization will be brought in line, on track, and you will be on a clear path. Actually, the more you create a gap between you and your thinking system, the more you will become a witness and the more you will become intelligent. You will not lose your balance and be swept away by the chaos that is happening inside your system. As of now, all our decisions are made only in the reactive mood, not with clarity and not with a clear mind. Continuously, information comes into our being and we process it at a high speed. We miss some information, mess it up and come up with an incorrect solution. The information that comes in is one thing; the decision that goes out is something else, because we process too much information in a very short time without creating a gap between us and our thinking. Once in awhile, let us create a gap to witness our thoughts. Let us try not to control or

Content: suppress our thoughts; just allow the thoughts to move, and witness them and then we will understand that we create self-contradicting thoughts.

Content: This is the main cause for all our troubles and problems, because the thoughts are unguided; they become misguided and cause a lot of confusion in our being. Above all, we don’t realize the true potential of our being. Once we create the gap, we will realize that our world is made of the same stuff our dreams are made of. The moment we understand this one statement, we have the possibility of transformation in our life.

Content: Let us analyze this statement and see how to apply it in your day-to-day life with your questions.

Content: Question and Answers:

Content: Q) Now scientists and doctors have come to an understanding of how the brain works and chemically, what happens in which part of the brain based on thoughts. Can you comment on it?

Content: A) I was with a group of doctors in Oklahoma one day. They did research on my brain to see how it works during meditation and during normal times, and compared it with how the brain works for a non-meditator. The research was done using PET scan and QEEG, by a group of doctors who have been in this field for the last thirty years. At the end of their study they concluded, ‘We thought we had come to an understanding of the brain but, after studying your brain, we can say we still have a lot to learn!’

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: I asked them a few questions about the brain and mind that they could not answer. I have met many scientists. I was in a discussion with Dr. Charles Townes, a noble laureate from the University of California, earlier on this tour. He said very honestly, 'There are thousands of things science cannot answer, and we still cannot disprove answers and experiences of mystics.' Unless you disprove something, you cannot say it is wrong. There are two ways: one is making a statement and proving it, and the other is removing all possibilities of disproving the statement. Mystics have gone the second way, removing all the doubts to disprove, which is more solid. We should understand one thing, in science, the discoveries and research can be presented in an objective way without you being interested in it. In the inner world, however, we need to have interest and look into it. Only then, truths can be realized. The inner world is such that it can't be brought across the table, because the table is in the outer world! Q) It is said that you made idols of many Gods as a child. If there is only one God, why did you need to use idols? A) Idol worship, an important belief of Hinduism, is being questioned here. You must understand that there is no such thing as idol worship in Hinduism; it is worship through idols only. It is never worship of idols. The Eastern mystics always say God is one. He is the all-pervading energy beyond form and formless, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Let me ask you honestly, the moment I say formless, what comes

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: to your mind? The sky, an ocean, an open space, am I right? Again it is a form but it is not described by length, breadth and depth. Please be very clear, unless you experience it, you cannot relate with something formless. So, as an initial way to relate, some forms are created. It’s a technique. For example, after learning cycling, you can remove your hands from the handlebars and ride the bike but, initially, you need to hold them and learn. Similarly, when you learn driving, initially you need to follow many rules; you need to be very alert. Once you master it, you can drive casually. You can even chat with your friend over the phone while driving. Just in the same way, when you enter the spiritual journey, in the end, everyone experiences the formless but, at the initial level, you need a form to relate to. As long as you think you are a form, you can’t relate with the formless. Even if you think of something as formless, you will again be giving it a form. It may be a sky or an ocean, something vast, but again it is going to be one more form. How many of you can visualize the formless without visualizing a sky or open space or ocean? Tell me honestly. If you say the formless just IS, it is an experience. If you experience, then it is okay. You don’t need anything but you cannot start with that experience. You can only start from where you are. I have seen many people who start straight away with the formless but they don’t feel totally connected.

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: That is why, in Eastern religions, they have the initial step as worship through idols as a way of relating and connecting. Once you master that, you can feel the formless everywhere. At least, I can say from my experience, surely a person in the initial level cannot relate to the formless directly. You may say it is possible but, if you do an honest check within yourself, you will understand that it takes some maturity to relate to the formless, and that it has not happened within most of us. Q) It is said that after your enlightenment, you were lying for nine months without food and water. Why did you need to starve yourself? A) If you are totally intoxicated with something, do you feel like eating? If you are filled with love, say you are meeting someone after a long time, will you feel like eating at that time? When my years of search ended, I did not feel like eating. After my experience of enlightenment, I didn't feel like I needed anything from the outer world! When I experienced that ecstasy, it was such a great joy and fulfillment that, for nine months, I didn't need anything from outside. Only when you are empty inside you fill yourself with food! Obesity is directly related to feeling empty inside. In some way, at some point in time of our lives, we all feel empty and that is why we eat too much. When you feel fulfilled, you feel full also. I was so satisfied that I did not need food and sleep for nine months.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Q) When everyone has their own reality and worships their own God, won't it create chaos? I believe in one God. I don't understand why everyone worships a different God. A) As long as you don't realize everything is Divine, you need to create something special and worship it. Once you grow and become mature, you realize the Divine in you; you realize that everything is worthy of worship and you don't need anything special. Then your very life, becomes worship; your walking, talking, sitting, everything! You feel so connected to the Ultimate. After that, you don't worship one form; you relate with everything, whatever is. It is such an ecstasy; everything is blessing you and you are blessing everything. Not only living persons, even inanimate things; rocks, rivers, and the things you use in your daily life, you start relating with. You include everything; nothing is excluded from worship. Until a person grows, each one needs their own path; every person needs to be guided from his level. We can't stand on the fifth floor and ask someone on the ground floor to come up; we need to show him the steps and the way to get to the fifth floor. If I stand on the fifth floor and say, 'Everything is divine, everything is God. Come on, realize it', I will be wasting my time and he will be wasting his. People come and tell me, 'I love the whole world.' I tell them, 'Loving the world is easy; loving your wife or neighbor is difficult!' Loving the world is easy because it's just an idea

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: but loving your wife is difficult, because you need to do something tangible to prove it! She is with you all the time. Whereas, the world is an abstract idea; you don't need to do anything to prove your statement. You can just make the statement and be quiet. Reality is different and thoughts are very different. It's the same thing we are doing in spirituality, also. We say, 'Everything is God,' but we never experience it. That's why mystics say, 'Start with one thing.' Feel that as God and start applying that to everything that is around you. In the beginning, for the energy you have, relate with one stone as God. Then expand the same attitude towards other things; create the same effect with every stone, every person, and every living thing, animate or inanimate. Then you will start experiencing that everything is Divine. Unless you love your wife and your neighbor, you can't really taste love. Then you can expand and start loving your state, your country and the whole universe. Expansion is possible but, if the Master copy is not created, how can you make more copies? In the same way, first you need to feel divinity as a solid experience in your life, not as a vague theory. Only when you see it as a solid experience can you reproduce it with others. When you experience everything as divine, you won't feel the need to defend yourself. You will be in such ecstasy; you will become open. You will feel everything is supporting you. If you really feel everything is divine, you will feel this one

Chapter Number: 100

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: truth: they say the whole cosmos wants you to achieve success in your life and it continuously supports you. If you really feel this truth, that the whole of Existence wants you to be successful, is supporting you to express your potential energy, if you strongly feel it in your life, you are already enlightened! Idol worship is to create the feeling that meditation, spirituality, etc. has come into existence. If this happens in you through worship, you will never feel like defending it; you will be just like a flower living on planet Earth. This happens only as experience, not as words. Q) Why does the mind create self-contradicting thoughts? A) To tell you honestly, I don't know why! I can help if you ask me how to go beyond it. I, too, wondered why we create conflicts but I cannot find an intellectual answer. How to go beyond it? The only answer is meditation. It worked in my life, so it will work in your life also; I can guarantee that. Practice the simple technique of creating ten minutes of time for yourself to sit and witness without judging, suppressing or analyzing your thoughts. It is like watching a movie on television. Let your mind become a screen and watch it. The very witnessing will infuse intelligence in your thinking system. It can stop the self-contradicting thoughts. We create self-contradicting thoughts as long as we are unconscious about our thinking system. The moment we become conscious, we stop creating

Chapter Name: Reality Dream

Content: self-contradicting thoughts. So just create awareness about your thinking system. Just be a witness to your thinking and automatically, you will resolve the conflicts. As long as you are unconscious, your thoughts will contradict each other. The moment you become conscious, they will complement each other. Just infuse silence into your thinking system by being a witness. The moment you practice this, your whole life will be transformed. It's a small key but only small keys open big doors! Q) Can you talk a little about the practice where people get their nourishment from other sources, such as sun, wind, etc. and how it enhances life? A) In yoga, they believe that energy can be taken directly from ether and air, the two higher elements; you don't need it from Earth (i.e. food) or water. This technique is called Hatha Yoga or pranayam. There are many other technical terms for it. It is possible. I read about some research done by Wisconsin University scientists on Lamas who directly take energy from ether. They did research on them and they said that, if you take, say 200 grams of some food, some energy is created in your body, but, in the Lamas' bodies, the same 200 grams of food creates six times more energy! Their system is such that they produce more energy, and doctors don't know where that energy comes from. They conclude that they get energy from unknown sources beyond food and water. Lamas say they get energy directly from the sky

Content: and ether. It is perfectly possible by practicing appropriate techniques.

Content: Witnessing your inhaling and exhaling process can infuse energy in you. The breathing cycle has four steps: inhaling, breath taking an outward turn, exhaling, and the breath taking an inward turn. You can't be aware of it all twenty four hours a day but take twenty minutes to sit with yourself and be aware of these four steps in your breathing process. You will be infusing energy and automatically, your food intake will reduce.

Content: You can find specific meditation techniques on our website (www.dhyanapetam.org). Depending on your need, be it physical health, mental health or spiritual growth, you can download the appropriate technique and practice it; it will surely transform you. I pray to that Ultimate Energy, to bless everyone with eternal bliss, nithyananda.

Content: Thank you.

Chapter Number: 7

Chapter Name: FROM WORDS TO SILENCE

Content: A musician plays the piano and sings: How could anyone ever tell you, that you're anything less than beautiful How could anyone ever tell you, you are less than whole How could anyone fail to notice, that your loving is a miracle How deeply you're connected to my soul (Repeat) I love myself the way I am There's nothing I need to change I'll always be the perfect me There's nothing to rearrange I'm beautiful and capable Of being the best me I can And I love myself Just the way I am I love you just the way you are There's nothing you need to do

Content: When I feel love inside myself It's easy to love you Behind your fears Your rage and tears I see a shining star And I love you just the way you are I love the world the way it is 'Cause I can clearly see That all the things I judge are men Are people just like me So till the birth of peace on Earth That only love can bring I'll help it grow By loving everything I love myself the way I am And I still want to grow And change outside will only come When deep inside I know I'm beautiful and capable Of being the best me I can And I love myself Just the way I am I love myself Just the way I am

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: Actually, we can't talk about silence. The moment we speak, we disturb the silence! I'll try to say a few words about how to create that silence within us. It is vibrant and living. We should understand one thing; when I use the word silence, I don't mean soundlessness. Soundlessness is negative silence. When I use the word silence, I mean a living, vibrant silence, not the silence of a graveyard; it is the silence of an enlightened Master. The silence of a graveyard is totally different from the silence of an enlightened Master. An enlightened person's silence is vibrant, living and alive. When Jesus says, 'Be still and know that I am God,' he means only this silence, the silence of enlightenment. Be still and know that I am Truth. When you are really still, you will know that you are the truth. And you will know that you and He are not two different things; you are just one and the same. You merge with Him; real unity happens in you. You start experiencing the same energy inside your being. You start experiencing the Christ Consciousness in you. A small story: A person goes to a great enlightened Master of Zen Buddhism and the disciple asks him, 'Master, do enlightened people speak?' The Master says, 'No, enlightened ones never speak. If they speak, be very clear, they don't know.'

Content: The disciple asks, 'Oh, that means they keep silent; they remain silent? They won't speak?' The Master says, 'No, they will not be in silence. They can't keep quiet. If they are not talking, be very clear, they don't know.'

Content: The disciple was puzzled, just like all of you now! 'What will they be doing then? You say they will neither talk nor keep quiet. What will they do?' he asks. The Master beautifully says, 'They just sing.'

Content: Their silence will be so vibrant, so alive, that the very silence will be like a song. It will be radiating. Wordlessness cannot be silence. Soundlessness cannot be silence. It is negative silence. It is okay once in a while. It is good to be silent.

Content: The silence of an enlightened Master is totally different. To enter into that, you need to go beyond words. Going beyond words and silence, crossing both, should help you realize that silence of an enlightened Master.

Content: An ordinary silence which we understand, which is wordlessness, is not enough. The wordlessness should happen in our being. When we enter into that silence, our whole being starts radiating; we start singing.

Content: When I say 'start singing,' not only through your mouth, your whole being starts singing. You radiate a different grace. Your very walking will be like a dance. Your very movements will be graceful.

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: Your presence will be a blessing. When you enter into that silence, your very presence on planet Earth will be a blessing. Your air, your space, will heal. That itself will radiate so much energy, so much life and so much light. You can touch and feel God in the presence of the man who has experienced God. When we go deep into that silence, we experience what Christ meant by the words, 'Be still and know that I am God.' We enter into that Christ Consciousness. I'll try to explain what the obstacles are. One, we are not able to experience that silence. The reason being, we don't trust that we, too, can experience that silence. We always think, 'This is not for me. I am not able to have it.' Again and again we postpone, by thinking that it is not for us, that we may not be able to achieve it. I have seen people making up their own reasons for it, also! We are experts in creating statements to support our conclusions. Someone came to me the other day and told me, 'I was born and brought up in the West. How can I become enlightened?' I asked, 'Who said that enlightenment is the copyright of Easterners? You can have a copyright for pizza; you can have a copyright for food; you can have a copyright for commerce; you can have a copyright for light but not for enlightenment!'

Content: It is the property of the whole universe. It is our birthright. Please be very clear, it is our birthright. The silence I speak of, the enlightenment which I express, is our birthright. We don't need any qualification for it!

Content: In the East, again and again, women come and ask me, 'Oh we are women. How can we become enlightened?' Again, it is a very wrong idea created by society over years. Actually, for women there is a stronger chance to become enlightened because, by nature, they are more passive; by their very nature they are loving and caring. For them to receive, express and radiate that silence and energy is a far greater possibility.

Content: Somebody went to a great enlightened Master in South India. That Master's name was Ramana Maharishi. I was born and brought up in his place, Tiruvannamalai. This man went and asked him, 'Bhagavan (Bhagavan means Godlike), can I become enlightened?' Bhagavan said, 'Yes, surely you can.' The disciple asked, 'What is the qualification?' Bhagavan said, 'Are you alive?' The man said, 'Yes, I am alive; that's how I am here.' Bhagavan said, 'That is enough. That is the qualification.'

Content: So you, too, can become enlightened. If you are alive, that is enough; you have all the qualifications to become enlightened. No other qualification is necessary.

Content: Next, we always have guilt about ourselves. We don't respect ourselves. Jesus says beautifully, 'Love your neighbour as you love yourself,' but the problem is we don't even love

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: ourselves! How can we love our neighbours when we don't even respect ourselves! The musician sang, 'Let us accept ourselves as we are; let us love ourselves as we are,' but we neither respect ourselves nor love ourselves. That is the reason why we think this silence or this enlightenment experience is not for us. We postpone and postpone. We have deep guilt about ourselves. We have some idea about how life should be and we try to recreate or reproduce that imagination or idea into reality. When we are not able to, we create guilt. It goes on and on. It is a vicious cycle. We continuously disrespect ourselves. When you want to measure the strength of a chain, you always measure based on the weakest link, the strength of the weakest link. Based on that, we know the strength of the chain. When we try to measure the strength of our life, of our being, again we try to use the same logic. We try to measure ourselves based on our weakest moments. That is not the way it should be done. When we measure the strength of our life, being and mind, based on our weakest link, we commit a big mistake. We should never measure ourselves based on our failures, on our low energy moments, our low energy moods, or our wrong decisions. We should measure ourselves with the

Content: highest moments of our lives, because we have already touched those high moments! It is a clear assurance that we can touch those heights. We have already touched them! But what do we do? Whenever we are going to take a new step, we remember only our past mistakes and wrong decisions. We want to be careful, so we weigh and measure ourselves only based on our past mistakes. The good things we have done or the right decisions we have made don't even surface in our minds. The more we remember the negative decisions or our mistakes, the more we create guilt within ourselves. One thing that we should understand is, guilt will, again and again, attract the same negative instances in our life. It's like pain will attract pain. Money will attract money. Joy will attract joy. If we are joyful, we attract joyful people around us; we create a beautiful community around us and we create a blissful group around us. If we are in suffering, if we have some depression, naturally, we attract only that type of people around us. We attract people who will abuse us, who will give us pain, who will torture us. When we conclude that we are an inferior person, when we create a deep guilt in ourselves, naturally, we attract only those types of incidents, those types of people, those types of situations in our lives that support our view. If we turn

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: on the television to watch the CNN channel, we will see CNN news. If we tune our television to watch cartoons, we will see cartoons. In the same way, if we tune our mind to a positive attitude, to positive things, we will start seeing positive people and incidents. We will start meeting blissful friends; we will start facing blissful situations and we will start creating a blissful life. When we do it the other way around, we will be continuously seeing people who create more depression in us, who abuse us, who disturb us, who create more and more bondage in our life. It is we who decide. So don't think that the silence of enlightenment is not possible for you in life. People always come and ask me, 'What you say is really beautiful; it makes sense but tell me some practical method.' The moment you ask, the moment you say 'practical', you have already decided what I am saying is impractical. Be very clear, the very understanding and the courage to think, 'What he says is practical; I will express it with my life,' is more than enough. Usually we neither respect ourselves nor trust that we can have the experience of that silence and enlightenment. Just have faith in what you hear from me. I talk from my own experience, not from anything else. And that is more than enough for you. You don't need anything else. First thing, understand that you can, you are eligible. Everyone is entitled to enter into the Kingdom of God, to

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: enter into the divine space. Every one of us is eligible. God cannot send us out. Be very clear. A beautiful story: There was a king in India, who was self-centered and very egotistic. His ego had grown to such a great extent that he started saying, 'I can do everything God does. I am greater than God.' If someone objected to his view, immediately, he would order, 'Kill him!' There was one enlightened Master in that kingdom, in a nearby village. He visited the capital, heard the whole story and wanted to teach the king a lesson. He went to the court and started praising the king, 'O king, you are equal to God; you are God.' The king was delighted. He said, 'You are the right person. Come, come on; teach us all the truth, whatever you have realized.' The Master said, 'I have to tell you one important thing. There are some things you can do, that even God cannot do.' Now, the king was just floating. He said, 'Come on, tell me what it is that I can do that even God cannot do.' The Master continued, 'If you are angry with somebody you can send him out of your kingdom but God cannot!' The king was shocked. The scope of the statement hit him suddenly and he realized how foolish he had been.

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: So be very clear, God cannot send us out of his kingdom! The whole universe is His! And the Kingdom of God, enlightenment, the vibrant silence, is our birthright. The second thing we need to understand is, we have wrong ideas about this enlightenment. People come and ask me, 'If I become enlightened, will all my desires be fulfilled? Will whatever I think come true?' Be very clear, that would be a big punishment. Really, I tell you, just because of his compassion, God never fulfills our prayers. If he fulfilled all our prayers, our whole life would become a mess. It is out of his compassion that he fulfills only a few prayers, and out of his greater compassion that he leaves most of our prayers unfulfilled. Please be very clear, it is out of his great compassion, sometimes, that he never fulfils our desires. We don't even know the after-effect or side-effect of many of our desires. Without even knowing the after-effects or side-effects of those desires, we start hankering after them. We start asking for them. We believe God can give them but we don't believe God has the little intelligence to know when to give, and whether to give, some of those things, even. That is where the problem starts. If we trust in God's intelligence, first of all, we won't even ask. Even if we ask, we should know that God intelligently fulfills some desires and leaves the rest, for our own good.

Content: A small story: ne pseudo Master (pseudo Master means one who is not enlightened; just an intellectual who starts preaching) was claiming that he was enlightened and tried to create disciples. Of course, pseudo persons can imitate beautifully. Original Masters will never really match our concept of a Master. That's why they are continuously crucified, stoned and poisoned. Original Masters will just be. They will be original; they will not be acting or imitating anybody. They will be themselves. It is very difficult to recognize somebody original but somebody pseudo, you can easily think is a Master because he will be imitating; he will be following; he will give you an image, a clear-cut idea. The original person, on the other hand, will be so rebellious; he will be such a live energy that it will be very difficult to understand him. This guy, a pseudo person, started attracting many disciples. Many disciples gathered around him. One day, suddenly, he died. His closest two disciples thought, 'How can we live without our Master?' They committed suicide. All three of them reached the other world and stood at the big beautiful gates. The pseudo Master said, 'See I promised you all heaven. Now I have brought you here. I deliver the things that I promise. Come on; let us go inside.'

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: He knocked on the door. The security person opened the gates and all three entered inside. It was a beautiful place, such a wonderful place. Whatever they wanted, was there. Then again, the Master said, 'Look at this, I promised you paradise; now I've delivered. You can see that I do what I say.' They went around. The security person said, 'Sir, whatever you want, you can have here. You just have to order.' They started ordering. Whatever they wanted, immediately it was delivered. There was no gap between the thought and result, between desire and reality. They just had to wish and the wish was fulfilled. All three started living a kingly life, the best palaces, the best food, beautiful women, whatever they wanted. They had everything. Anything they asked for was immediately delivered but we don't usually understand one important thing. If we get everything, whatever we want immediately, we enter into a space called 'depression of success'. As long as we have hope, as long as our hopes are not completely fulfilled, we have hope! The moment our hopes are fulfilled, we become hopeless. We enter into the space of hopelessness. For these three people, whatever they wanted was given and all desires were fulfilled. After one week, they got fed up, tired and bored, because they had everything. What to do now? They lost their taste for life.

Content: They went to the security staff and asked, 'Please do us one small favor. Just open the window to the world, our old world. We wish to see that world so that we gain some more taste and develop some more desire. We can then come back and enjoy this world, because now we are fed up.'

Content: The security guard said, 'Okay, welcome. Please come.' He opened the window and they looked at the world. They saw the suffering, how the world was going on and becoming worse; how people were struggling to achieve even small things. Now, again, they got renewed interest about life, about things. They got new desires and started living again.

Content: This went on and on and on for some time. After one month, again they were fed up. Now they were lost in confusion. They went to the security guard again and asked, 'Sir, can you do us one favor? Can you open the door of Hell, so that we can see how the people are suffering there? Based on what we have seen, we will have some more desires and we can once again start enjoying what is here.'

Content: First they saw the world, so they got some more desire, and they started enjoying where they were. Now they wanted to see Hell, so they would have a little more inspiration to enjoy. The security guard laughed and said, 'Where do you think you are? You are in Hell!'

Content: The three of them experientially understood what hell was. In life, what we think of as heaven is actually hell for us

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: but, if we are told that in the beginning, we will not believe it. We have to experience it ourselves! So please be very clear, if all our desires are answered, if all our desires are fulfilled, we are in Hell, because we will neither get fulfilled nor will we move beyond desires. We will not be able to experience the bliss of desirelessness. A person who thinks enlightenment is about fulfilling all his desires is mistaken. Enlightenment is about going beyond desires, not about fulfilling all our desires. Fulfilling all our desires is again nothing but Hell. When we become enlightened, we go beyond desires. The bliss of ‘desirelessness’ happens in us. By fulfilling all our desires, we will never achieve the state of desirelessness. We can achieve the state where we are not able to desire anymore, depression, but, by working towards enlightenment, we can experience the bliss of desirelessness. First thing, we should start trusting, trusting that we can achieve, that we are qualified. Next thing, we have to drop all our wrong ideas about enlightenment. First, we have to drop all wrong ideas about ourselves, that we are not qualified. We have to drop that wrong idea. Next, we have to drop all the wrong ideas about enlightenment; if this happens that will be; if that happens this will be. Now, if we can drop the wrong ideas about ourselves and enlightenment, then both will become one and the same. Our Self will become enlightened! As long as we have wrong

Chapter Number: 118

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: ideas about ourselves and about enlightenment, we will keep both at a distance from one another. The moment we drop the wrong ideas about ourselves and the wrong ideas about enlightenment, we can start experiencing that we are enlightened. We are in that silence. We are in that experience. The silence of enlightenment is a living, vibrant silence, a living, vibrant energy. It is the heartbeat of the absolute, the heartbeat of Existence. When I say the word 'silence', I mean it is the heartbeat of the spiritual being: the ultimate, the Divine, what we call God. I pray to that Ultimate Energy, God, to shower his blessings upon you and to make you experience the silence, to lead you from words to silence. Let him give you the ultimate experience of that living silence, Eternal Bliss, nithyananda. We will spend a few minutes with your questions. If you have any questions, you are welcome to ask them now. Questions and Answers: Q) Can you grant enlightenment to someone if he wants it? A) Surely. Anybody who really wants it, without an iota of doubt, can surely have it. Not only can I grant it but, also, when you intensely want it, simply without even my giving, Existence can grant it to you. The very Existence can grant you enlightenment. There is no need for even me to be

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: between you and Existence. When somebody wants intensely, Existence simply grants. Somebody asked Buddha, 'Buddha, you know enlightenment is the greatest experience and bliss. Why don't you grant it for everybody on this planet Earth?' Buddha asked, 'Please find out how many really want it. Please go around and find out how many really want it.' The man went around and was surprised to see that no one was really interested in enlightenment. They were so caught up in their own things that no one was bothered about getting enlightened. Even if we want it, we want enlightenment as one more showpiece in our house. We are not ready to work for it. We are not ready to undergo the transformation which enlightenment will bring. I have seen many people when they come and live around me, when they see my joy and ecstasy and the way in which I am living and radiating bliss, they start asking me, 'Swamiji, why don't you give us enlightenment?' We need to understand one thing here. Along with enlightenment comes a tremendous responsibility of compassion. Don't think a person who is enlightened will be the authority of the world. He can't even think of doing anything by himself. He will be just an instrument in the hands of God, of Existence. Whatever Existence wills happens through him, that's all.

Chapter Number: 120

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: People ask me, 'Swamiji, whatever you think comes true. How is it?' I tell them, 'No! Never think that whatever I think comes true. I can't even think. I have no freedom. The Divine simply thinks through me, that's all. I don't even have the freedom to raise my little finger. If the Divine wills it, it can be raised, that's all. Even that much freedom I don't have! We always think that enlightenment is one more possession. No! Please be very clear, you can't possess enlightenment. Enlightenment will possess you. And anybody who is really intense about the desire for enlightenment, can surely have it. Of course, the Master can grant enlightenment. Paramahamsa means one who is liberated, who can liberate. A person who creates a formula to reproduce the experience of the outer world is a scientist. Newton created a formula to reproduce the experience of gravity, that he experienced. When he was sitting and relaxing, he saw an apple falling and he understood something. He had a certain glimpse, so he created a formula to reproduce the same experience, so that many people could understand it. He was a scientist. A person who creates a formula to reproduce the same experience that happens in the inner world is called a rishi, a sage; he is a seer, saint. A saint is a person who creates a formula to reproduce the experience that happens in the inner world. That formula is what we call meditation.'

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: Meditation is the formula that is created by an enlightened person, sage or a saint, to reproduce the same experience that happens in his being. Paramahamsa is a person who not only creates a formula but also liberates. He can guide people to follow the formula and experience it. That is what the Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP) is about; it means the flowering of eternal bliss. It is a formula that I have created to give the same experience that happened in me, to those who want it. The NSP was created to reproduce the same experience that happened in me, in all of you. The same experience that happened in me will be created in your being. Again, anybody who is intensely asking for it can surely have enlightenment. Sometimes, even I am not necessary. If your intensity is deep, Existence can directly grant you the ultimate experience. Q) How is ego an obstacle for enlightenment? A) The idea that ego is an obstacle for enlightenment is the only obstacle. If you search deeply, the ego is not there at all. It is our idea that something called ego is there and that it is attacking you. It is almost like a ghost that is not there but you start thinking it is. You should understand this one important thing. All negative things have got power; they have got only one power, which is your faith in them, that's all. Whether it is your depression or low energy or ego or ghost, witchcraft,

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: black magic, anything, they have only one power, which is your faith in them. They have no other power. Be very clear, they are like shadows. The more you run, the more they will be following you. If you just stop and look into them, look at what they are. You will realize they are nothing, that they are just your shadow. Have a little intelligence to stop and look. You will see they are nothing; you will simply see they are nothing. Q) How does enlightenment affect our everyday lives? A) That is something you can experience only after enlightenment happens to you! If you are bothered now about how it affects your everyday life, then be very clear, you still want some portion of your everyday life not to be affected. You want it to remain, to be retained as it is now. So naturally, you can't become enlightened! As long as you want to retain some part of you, some portion of your life, be very clear, you are not ready to enter into the zone of enlightenment. This is exactly what I mean when I say, 'Although you say you are ready for enlightenment, you are not really ready.' It is a pure alchemy process; when you enter into it, you will be a totally new, different being. People ask me, 'Will I renounce everything and go away?' For enlightenment, you don't have to renounce anything; just renounce what you don't have, that's enough. There are thousands of things in your life you don't have but, yet, you are living with them.

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: They have become your fantasies and desires. Just renounce all these that you don't have, that is enough. You can become enlightened. You don't have to renounce what you have. Live intensely with what you have; just renounce what you don't have, that's enough. As of now, you have an idea as to how your future should be. You even have fantasies about how the continuity of it should be. If you think that your future should be a continuity of your present, even that idea is a desire; it is one more fantasy. As of now, if you can drop what you don't have, that's enough; you can become enlightened. All you need to do is just drop what you don't have, and start living with what you have, the present moment. Never think, 'How will I be transformed, how will things be changed, should I go for it or not?' etc. I have seen many people at Universal Studios. Before entering the ride, they ask the people who have just come out of the ride, 'How was it? Is it alright for me to go inside?' They ask for opinions. In enlightenment, you can't ask for anybody's opinions. You have to simply take the risk of entering into it. If you want to have a particular idea when you enter, you will never be able to enter. It's a pure risk but a beautiful risk!

Chapter Number: 124

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Q) In the organization, Alcoholics Anonymous, if somebody feels they are not yet ready to give up drinking, they ask for the desire which desires to give up drinking. You have said that the reason we are not yet enlightened is because we aren't ready to be enlightened. How do I desire for a desire to be enlightened? A) Actually, when I talk about desirelessness and the ecstasy of that, people immediately start creating one more desire about desirelessness. All you need to do is understand the ecstasy of desirelessness and start relaxing from the existing desires. Please, don't create one more desire for desirelessness. Then you are adding a little more load. No, try to drop from what you have, instead of adding a little more stuff to what you have. It is like this, when I tell these restless people to sit for a while doing nothing, they ask me, 'How do we sit doing nothing?' They create one more restless thought in their minds! I tell them, 'Arrey! Just sit, that's all!' That is how this desirelessness also is. The experience of desirelessness will start happening in you when you simply relax from what desires you have. Start living with what you have, instead of living with what you don't have. This is the simple sutra or technique for this. You cannot create desire for desirelessness and, if you create desire for desirelessness, you are creating one more desire. Please be very clear, just relax from the mind, from these very words, and you will drop into the silence. Just relax

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: from the desires and you will drop into desirelessness. Never make the mistake of creating a desire for desirelessness. Q) Is the first step for enlightenment meditation? A) We can say this is the first and last step. When you start meditating, you enter into the space of enlightenment. When you stop meditating, you are enlightened. Meditation is the first and last step. Meditation is the alchemy to give enlightenment. It just gives you the ultimate experience which I call enlightenment. So starting to meditate is one of the best, the first and the last step for enlightenment. Q) Can you please explain more about positive and negative thoughts? A) As such, there is nothing called negative thoughts in our being. Understand light and darkness. Light has got positive existence but darkness has no positive existence. Lightlessness is called darkness. It doesn't mean lightlessness has got an existence; it just means an absence of light, that's all. In the same way, negative thoughts have no positive existence. They are there, no doubt, but they don't have such an existence that you can push them out. All we need to do is create enough light so that lightlessness no longer exists. You can't directly do anything with darkness. For example, if a room is dark, no matter how much you try to push the darkness away, you cannot. Even if ten people sitting in that room try their best to throw

Content: the darkness away, do you think they can? No! You can't do anything directly with darkness, because it doesn't have a positive existence. All you can do is just bring in light and darkness disappears.

Content: In the same way, you can't remove your negative thinking by fighting with it. The more you fight, the more you will be creating negativity. With negative thinking, you can't do anything with it, because it has no positive existence. You can't try to push. If you try to suppress your negative thinking, control your negative thinking, please be very clear, you are doing the same thing as when you try to push darkness away from a room. Can you suppress darkness?

Content: All you can do is just bring light into the room and the darkness will disappear. All we can do is just bring in positive energy, positive thoughts; simply, the negativity will disappear. As darkness disappears, the negativity will disappear. To remove darkness, bring in light. To remove negativity, bring in enlightenment, that's all!

Content: Q) In America people have difficulty in stilling the mind for meditation. What will you tell them?

Content: A) Not only in America, all over the world, wherever people have a mind, they have difficulty in stilling it! It is not just in America. If you are a human being with a mind, the problem is there. The very word 'mind' means that which oscillates.

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: Somebody came and told me, 'I have too much trouble from my wife.' I told him, 'If she doesn't give you trouble, how can you call her your wife?'

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: Anyway, the very word 'mind' means trouble. There must be some trouble, otherwise we can't call it mind. In Sanskrit, we have a beautiful word for mind, manas. Manas means 'that which oscillates'. So all we can do to still the mind is, don't bother about it, don't try to stop it, just relax and it will also relax.

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: Don't create a thought; don't try to sustain a thought by supporting it nor try to destroy a thought. Just stop these three and sit with yourself. You will see there will be no-mind. If you try to create a thought, there will be mind; you will be giving power to the existence of the mind. If you try to sustain a thought by supporting it, again you are sustaining the presence of the mind. If you try to destroy a thought, again you are strengthening the presence of the mind.

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: When you are trying to still the mind, the first thing you try is to destroy the thoughts. By trying to destroy them, you will be creating only more thoughts. Our mind is like a lake. If somebody throws a small stone, ripples are created. If you want the ripples to settle down, if you want the silence and, if you go and try to stop the ripples by hand, what will happen? You will be creating only more and more ripples. And you will wonder why the ripples are increasing when you are trying to stop them with your hand!

Content: get confused and in the process, you will start creating waves instead of ripples! That is what we usually do when we try to still our mind. Please be very clear, if someone has thrown a pebble and if ripples are created in the lake, just sit silently and see that no more pebbles are thrown. Sit silently and make sure no more pebbles are thrown. That's enough; it will become silent. In the same way, neither create a thought nor support it by your energy nor try to destroy it. Just drop these three. Sit and you will become God, the Ultimate Energy, the Divine. In India, we call God a Trinity comprising these three parts - creator, sustainer and destroyer. When you don't do these three things with your mind, you enter into God consciousness. Creating a thought, sustaining a thought or destroying a thought; if you don't do any of these three, you enter into the consciousness of God, Super Consciousness, Christ Consciousness or whatever you may name it. You enter into that ultimate spiritual being. So, let us pray to that Divine to help us try it once in awhile and give us that experience. Try to make some time for yourself. Try to make one appointment with yourself. We give appointments to everybody but we don't give appointments to ourselves.

Chapter Name: From Words to Silence

Content: Please give an appointment to yourself and have a little time for yourself. Sit with yourself without creating any thought, maintaining any thought or destroying any thought. Just sit with yourself. You will see that you are sitting with God. When you sit with yourself, you will be sitting with God. I pray to that Ultimate Divine Energy, God, to give us all the same experience of unity with him, God Consciousness. Let Him lead us all from words to silence, Eternal Bliss, nithyananda. Thank you.

Chapter Number: 8

Chapter Name: TIME, THE ULTIMATE THIEF

Content: Time is a thief who steals physical health, mental health and spiritual well-being from us. At the physical level, as we grow older, we all believe that our health deteriorates. At the mental level, when we are continuously aware of it, time steals our peace of mind and creates stress in us. Time can be perceived in two ways: chronological time and psychological time. We are all aware of chronological time; it is what we see on our clocks and is measured in seconds, minutes, days, etc. In India, we have a psychological concept of time which is measured by kshana, or the gap between one thought and another. All our stress is the result of internalizing chronological time, which is required in the outer world, and using it in our inner world, where it cannot be applied. If we understand this one idea, we can liberate ourselves from stress, without any technique. We may feel

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: that being stress-free is too good to be true but it is possible. All our stress is the result of misunderstanding and confusing these two different concepts of time. Chronological time is the time that we use for our daily activities and we all know it very well. For example, if you have to pick up someone at the airport at 11 pm, you say to yourself, 'I will come home after the office at 7 pm, have a shower and be ready by 8 pm, have dinner by 9 pm and leave for the airport. I will reach the airport by 10:45 pm. This is chronological planning and is perfectly alright. Now, let us analyze psychological time, which is the gap between two thoughts. Have you ever noticed that when you are with a friend whom you really like, you don't realize how quickly time passes? On the other hand, if you are sitting with someone who is boring, you will check your watch every ten minutes and feel like time isn't moving fast enough! This is because, when you are joyful with a person whom you like, there are not so many thoughts that pass through your mind. The kshana, or time gap between two thoughts, is large. And when this happens, a lot of time passes without your knowledge but, when you are with a person who makes you bored, your mind starts chewing on a lot of other thoughts and the gap, or kshana, between thoughts becomes very small, and you get the feeling a lot of time has gone past. The larger the number of thoughts you have, the more slowly time seems to move; the smaller the number of thoughts, the more relaxed you are and time flies.

Content: The more you think of time, the higher your stress level will become, the less efficient you will become, and the less likely you will be to meet your target, and this will result in more stress. Thus, we travel in a vicious circle, reducing our intelligence, skills and capacity, because we remember time, again and again. Stress not only affects your mind, it also affects your body. For instance, if you sit in your office and worry, even if you don't do any work, you will develop shoulder pain! How many of you have experienced it? Come on, raise your hands. [Many raise their hands].

Content: Stress is not just a mental problem; it becomes a physical problem, too. People often tell me, 'I know it's wrong but I get stressed all the time.' The main reason for that is the large number of thoughts that continuously remind us of time and create stress. If our thoughts are reduced, we won't notice time moving and we will be less stressed.

Content: In ancient India, there was a practice called kayakalpa, to reverse the aging process. According to the philosophy, as you age, you become healthier, because your body and mind are better trained to live in the world. If you are trained in driving and become a good driver, you can drive without any effort. In the same way, as the years pass, you should master the art of living in this world and live better every passing day. They say, as you grow older, you are not supposed to fall sick or have stress, because you should know the logic of the world and, therefore, be more intelligent, healthy and spontaneous. However, that is not true from our experience! We don't experience it this way. We experience more pain

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: and more misery as we grow older. We complain more as we grow older.

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: A small story:

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: An old couple moved into the neighbouring city of their daughter in the USA. One day, there was a hurricane warning announced in the daughter's city, so she sent her two children to the grandparents' place to keep them safe. Two days passed and the hurricane did not happen but she got a telegram back, 'Take children, send hurricane.'

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: The older we grow, the more difficult we find managing things. Everything bothers us. Anything is a cause for complaint. What has happened? Where are we missing it? The missing link is our idea of time, and continuously being reminded of chronological time, because of the increased number of thoughts.

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: If we change two things, we can make it a reality: first, the perception of our body. We always think, as we age, our body gets old and diseased. It is not necessarily true but that is our perception. We may question it by saying, when we get old, we really do feel tired and it's not our imagination but you don't know the power of your mind. Your mind can simply make you old or young; it can make you tired or energetic, in just a few seconds. When you are in the peak of tiredness, it can make you energetic with just a passing thought.

Content: During my days of wandering in my pre-enlightenment period, I went to a place in Tibet where the Lamas live. I was told that people there live very long lives. I saw an elderly man working in the fields. I asked him, 'Do people here live long? Please tell me about it.' He laughed and said, 'Yes, it is true. People here live very long. I am 136 years old.' I was shocked. That man was considered to be middle-aged there. And there were others who were 200 or more! There were medical records to show he was actually 136 years of age. And he was working on the farm at 136. I couldn't believe it, just like you all now! They showed me a report by researchers from Wisconsin University, who worked with them to study their bodies and understand why they live longer.

Content: According to the scientists, their bodies work just like ours; they are no different, even genetically. They conclude there is something beyond the body that makes them live longer. None of the Lamas could give any reason for their long lives but they all had a strong belief that human beings are supposed to live up to 300 years! That was the key to the whole thing! You need to understand this deeply. If someone died at 200, it was considered an unnatural death! Just the belief that humans are supposed to live till 300! actually made them live till 300! I later read a report by scientists that said our bodies continuously rejuvenate and replace themselves and can do so for 300 years.

Content: So our perception about our bodies must change. Our mind has such tremendous power that, whatever we believe, we

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: have the capacity to make a reality. That is why people who see horror movies, continuously, start imagining and seeing ghosts. If we watch one horror movie every night for ten days in a row, on the eleventh day we will see a ghost, or think we are seeing ghosts when a curtain moves. Our mind has the capacity to make anything a reality. The first basic idea or our perception of time at the physical level is incorrect. Our thinking that the more we age, the more we fall sick, is wrong.

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: Next, at the psychological level, again and again remembering time will stress us out and disturb our whole being. The more thoughts we have, the more they remind us that time is ticking and that we have less time. That is why we call hell, 'eternal hell'. There is a wonderful Zen saying, 'If you want to delay anything, do it as fast as possible.'

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: When we have too many thoughts, we do not have the satisfaction that we have lived our lives. Whatever products we deliver, even if we do it on time, will be of much higher quality if we are less stressed. If the concept of chronological time is not internalized, our unleashed potential will be much higher.

Chapter Number: 1

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: By nature, the concept of time is negative. Especially in the West, the passage of time indicates you are moving towards the negative aspects of your life. The other day, an old lady came late for the meditation program in the U.S. I asked her why she was late. She explained she had to do her hair and make up. I asked her why she would bother with it at

Content: her age, when she knows the chemicals are harmful for her body. I was shocked to hear her say that in this society, you need to look young and compete with youngsters! The more time passes, the more you face the negative aspects of life.

Content: When we remember time, again and again, we unconsciously infuse dullness into our being; the very remembrance of time is enough to pull our energy level down and increase our stress. We are just pulled and pushed; we never live in the present. Psychological time steals our peace. That is why I call it the ultimate thief.

Content: When we come to the present, our number of thoughts reduces; we don't realize how time rolls, and automatically, the idea of time disappears. When we are in the present moment, a tremendous potential will be unleashed and we will be rejuvenated. When we are like this, our productivity will amaze us. So much will get done without our knowledge of the passing of time. Also, the quality of work will baffle us. When we look back, we will wonder if it was really us who did all that in that short span of time. It is a liberating experience to work in this zone. If we get a glimpse of this, we will know how to slip into it at all times.

Content: In Zen, they say, 'Whatever is, is energy.' We are in energy and we are inhaling energy. The Hindu scriptures also say the same, isa vasyam idam sarvam: 'Whatever exists is energy.' Mystics claim the older you get, the more energetic you get. That's why in the East, youth is not worshipped; elders are worshipped; we turn to them for guidance. When rishis say

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: everything is energy, why can't we experience it? What is the missing link? It is because we are caught up with the past and the future, which are not reality, only imaginary. What we perceive as past or future is not reality. Whatever we remember as our past is only our idea of it; it's not really our past. We always feel, 'My childhood days were golden and my college days were heaven'. Be honest. Was it great when you actually lived it? No! You would have been grumbling about each and every thing you had to do at that time but our mind projects it and makes us think it was great. Whatever we remember about the past is only our perception of it, not reality, because we never remember the past in its entirety; we only remember bits and pieces of it as it suits us, as we choose to remember. A small story: One lady was walking with her three grandchildren. A passerby looked at them and told her, 'What beautiful grandchildren you have!' The lady smiled at her and said, 'You should see their photographs. They are dolls!' Everything, except reality, is beautiful for us! Likewise, the whole of the past up to the point of present is beautiful for us! That is the problem.

Content: All our ideas about the future, our worries, fears and insecurities, are only our perceptions, not the real future. I have seen so many people who worry continuously. Initially, we worry because of some reason but, after some time, we master the art of worrying. Then, even if we don't find any reason, we start worrying because we become habituated to do it.

Content: I did a small study with a group of fifty people. I asked them to write whatever worries, fears and insecurities they had about the next six months of their lives. Even according to psychologists, you can't visualize more than six months of your life. And that time period is reducing now because social, political, and economic changes are happening at a faster rate these days. Anyhow, I collected their list of worries. After six months we all met again. I asked them to mark all their worries that had become a reality. You would be surprised that a maximum of only 3% of their worries had come true! The remaining ninety-seven percent of their worries never came true! Can you imagine how much of your mental energy is wasted in worrying?

Content: One man visited his doctor who told him this same logic about worries. He asked him, 'Now, out of the 10 worries that you had yesterday about today, how many actually turned out to be true?' The man replied, 'None.' The doctor asked, 'Then why are you still worrying?' The man said, 'But I am worried about why they did not happen.'

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Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: This is what I mean when I say worry has become a part of you. The more you worry, the less you create, the more you are stressed, the less you are expressing. All your concepts about the future are only your concepts; they do not really make your future. Only the present moment, which is in our hands, is reality; all else, is only our perception. The moment we relax into the present moment, our body and mind will have a new energy that will circulate with renewed vigour every moment. Try this small exercise for a few minutes: go into a room, close the door, sit down and say, 'I accept my life as it is: my life, my relationships, my body and mind,' and come to the present moment. As you do this, feel every word that you say deeply, from within. The moment you make a conscious decision, a sankalpa, and start relaxing, you will be amazed to see the energy that happens to your being. As long as you are bothered about the future or thinking about the past, you will be away from the source of energy, your inner being. The moment you come to the present, realizing that that is all there is, there will be a gush of energy in your being. Then every moment will become a potential moment for you to experience in totality. Physically, the concept of time makes us old, sick and uneasy. Mentally, the concept of time gives us stress and boredom. Boredom is mainly due to the notion of time.

Content: A small Zen story: A great Zen Master had some problem in his stomach. His physician advised him to eat a certain food with herbs everyday. He ate it for ten years. One day, the disciple who cooked for him asked, 'Master, are you not bored of eating the same food everyday? I'm bored of cooking the same food everyday!' The Master was surprised. He replied beautifully, 'Who told you I am eating the same food everyday? No, it is not the same food. Once I eat it, it's over; it is new food everyday. I never eat the same food everyday!' It is only when you have a concept of time, do you think, 'Oh God! Same office, same house, same wife and same life!'

Content: Another small story: A national football champion was visiting his hometown and decided to pay a visit to his college. The college authorities felt honored to have him, so there was a grand reception for him. After the reception, he told the principal he would like to visit the dormitory where he had stayed as a student. When he reached the dorm, he looked at it and said, 'Same old building!' One student ran ahead to make sure the room was presentable. He found his roommate having an affair with a girl. Since girls were not allowed in the men's dorm, they quickly hid the girl in the closet, hoping no one would open it.

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: When the champion arrived at the room, he said, 'Same old room.' He looked at the furniture in the room and commented, 'Same old bed and same old table!' He then opened the closet, saw the girl inside and said, 'Same old girl!' To this, her boyfriend replied angrily, 'No, she's not the same old girl; she is my girl!' The champ replied, 'Same old lie!' This is how our mind works. We tend to think 'same old... same old...' even when things have changed. With such an attitude, we fail to notice the subtle changes that are constantly happening in and around us. As a result, we lose our taste for life itself. We miss the beauty of the ever-changing Existence. A child, on the other hand, does not have this attitude and explores every moment as fresh and everyday as a new beginning! When we are caught in the emotional attachment to the samskara (unfulfilled desires) of the past, we feel that the same past is repeating itself again and again. It is just our conscious choice to liberate ourselves from the past and future and come to the present. The concept of psychological time gives us stress, takes away our peace, reduces our efficiency and creates the idea of boredom, the attitude of 'the same old...' The concept of time disturbs us physically and mentally. If you can, open yourself to a new way of thinking and

Content: perceiving time. First, don't believe that you have to fall sick when you get old, because, as you age, you can master the techniques of living in this body and in this world in a better and better way. Next, try to live in the present moment, instead of being pulled and pushed by past and future. These two things will automatically help you in your spiritual growth and well-being.

Content: I pray to the Ultimate Energy to guide us all to understand the concept of time, kshana and go beyond kshanika (slowly disappearing from this existence) and give us real health, peace and eternal bliss, nithyananda.

Content: Questions and Answers:

Content: Q) We all have to work with deadlines and time pressure. When you say, 'Don't think of time,' please explain how we can manage our tasks. When you have time consciousness, are you able to manage?

Content: A) Yes

Content: If you can manage your tasks with time consciousness and stress, then you can definitely manage your tasks without the stress of time consciousness, also. You will be more creative without stress. A person who is stressed cannot create anything new; instead he will work in a programmed way. Just be aware that the task needs to be completed within a particular time and then don't be continuously aware of the time alone. Shift to the job in totality. That way, you will find the job gets done quickly, creatively and without stress.

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Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: If you scan your life, you will notice that in your own house, you won't use many rooms. When you leave work and go home, you will go and sit on the same couch in the same room everyday, eat dinner in the same place, go to the same spot on your bed and go to sleep! Even your vacations are clearly programmed. This is because of your unconscious awareness of time. There are two kinds of people: those who can manage with time pressures and deadlines, and those who cannot. If you're in the first group, if you can manage your activities with stress, you can surely manage without stress. If you belong to the other group who are unable to manage deadlines, can you really manage better with stress? Then why have stress? Either way, whether you can manage it or not, stress is not going to help you. We sometimes think that stress can make us handle things better. That's not true. Only creativity and unleashing your potential can help you handle things in the best possible way. Stress stalls the whole process. Understand that clearly. If you drop your stress and manage without it, you will be more creative and produce much better results. Stress can only make you less efficient. Becoming more efficient can happen only by clarity, creativity, and dropping stress. You may say, 'This stress management is all just theory. I have tried it a lot. I have read a lot about it. I don't think it really works. I remember all the concepts for two days. It's nice but after that I'm back to the same routine and lifestyle.' If it fails again and again, it means your understanding is

Content: not deep enough; it means you have not taken in these words fully. Someone told me, 'In the last one year alone, eleven times I stopped smoking!' It means eleven times he started again! That means his decision to stop smoking was not strong; his understanding was not deep enough. It is your own mind after all! If you can understand and penetrate your being and decide consciously to drop the stress, it will work for you. Make it very clear to yourself by telling yourself, 'I hereby decide to live without stress, the way I want to.' Understand that stress cannot help you become more efficient; it can only make you inefficient. Again and again, you are taught to remember time and pressure yourself. Just observe yourself. The moment you think about people who add pressure to your life, when you remember their faces or words, your energy is drained. Then, how can you be successful based on stress? If you can come down to the present moment, reducing worries, minimizing the number of thoughts, reducing your frequency of thinking, it can unleash your potential energy and you will see a different dimension of your life. It needs some courage to experiment. Try this: for the next eleven days, tell yourself, 'I will not bother about my past or future. I will live in just this moment.' One more thing, when you remember your past, you will remember only your failures. It is like measuring the strength of a chain by its weakest link. For a chain, it is the

Chapter Name: Time, the Ultimate Thief

Content: right thing to do but that logic cannot be applied to yourself. If you consider your life as a chain of incidents, and you measure yourself with your greatest failure, it is a wrong calculation, because you have touched peaks of success. Then, how can you measure yourself with failures? Be a little loving toward yourself and take an average, but you never do this. Everyone will have valleys and peaks. If you have to measure yourself, take the average, if not the peaks, but our mental setup is such that we measure ourselves only with the valleys. Neither remembering the past nor worrying about the future will transform you. Come to the present and become one with your energy. The Gita says, 'You have the authority to work but don't bother about the results.' Krishna doesn't mean, 'Don't take your salary.' No! It means you can always have your salary but don't keep thinking about it and visualizing it all the time. Continuously visualizing the fruits, or results, will paralyze you; you won't be able to walk on the path. When you choose the right road, just walk the path and you will reach the goal. A small story: ne guy was in a ferry to cross a river. Once the boatman started rowing, he started walking up and down. The boatman said to the man, 'Please be seated. I can't row if you walk around.' The man replied, 'I have no time to sit. I have to reach the other side urgently.'

Content: All your stress is like walking inside the boat. It can never help you; at the most, it can disturb you and hinder the growth. Look into it and be more intelligent.

Content: Q) How do you unlearn the past?

Content: A) Make a conscious decision for eleven days to live in the present moment. Surely in eleven days you won't lose your life, although your mind will say, 'I have this project; I have that project; I will do it after that.' For the next eleven days, make this commitment to yourself. 'Whenever I remember, I will decide to drop the stress and drop the faces and words that create stress in me. I accept myself completely as I am. Whatever comes out of it, I will face it.'

Content: I assure you, the only side effects will be increase in efficiency, the ability to achieve your goals and the experience of bliss. When I say this, I take responsibility for these words. In the last two years, I have met 250,000 people individually. We have 2000 trained healers spreading meditation, working in 1000 centers in 30 countries, touching 10,000 people everyday. From my experience of directly touching people from all walks of life and backgrounds, I can say your decision to live in the present moment can transform your life.

Chapter Name: WHAT IS HEALING?

Content: How old is the healing science? We can't say how old the healing science is; it may be as old as human beings are, or humanity is, or perhaps much older. What exactly do we mean by the word 'healing'? When a sick kitten gets healed or becomes alright when the mother cat licks it, at that moment, you can say healing takes place. Buddha gives a beautiful explanation or definition for the word 'healing'. He says healing is our way of expressing our compassion, expressing our care towards somebody to help cure him. Healing is nothing but helping a person restore his physical, mental and emotional well-being. At any level, healing can happen; we can help somebody to restore their physical well-being. We can help somebody restore their mental well-being or we can help somebody restore their emotional well-being.

Content: In other words, giving someone a feeling of well-being is healing. According to me, allowing Him to work on us is healing. When I say Him, I mean the Divine personality, the Divine Energy. We may call Him by various names but allowing Him to work on us is healing.

Content: If we can give a few courteous words to others, a few good words to make them feel comfortable, which make them feel joyful, even that can be termed healing.

Content: An experiment was conducted in Ohio University in the 1970's to study heart diseases. A toxic, high cholesterol diet was fed to rabbits to bring about a blockage in their arteries. All the rabbit groups showed consistent results except one group. Strangely 60 percent fewer symptoms resulted in this group of rabbits. It was found that the student who was in charge of feeding this group of rabbits was in the habit of fondling and petting them. He used to hold each rabbit lovingly for a few minutes each day before feeding them. It was amazing that this alone seemed to enable the animals to overcome the toxic diet. When experiments were repeated with one group treated neutrally and the other lovingly, the same results were brought about.

Content: So let us look into the major healing systems created by the great Master, Patanjali, in ancient India. There are thousands of great Masters, rishis and mystics who were healers. Almost all the spiritual Masters expressed their energy only in the form of healing others, only in the form of healing the people, healing the sick. There was, and is,

Chapter Name: What is Healing?

Content: no Master, mystic or rishi whose life was not associated with at least one or two healing miracles, always human beings. Especially Indians have gone to Masters or rishis, to be healed. Not only that, to qualify as a Master in the eyes of the common man, a person has to exhibit healing powers. There are thousands of records, proofs, and testimonials to show that there is something called 'healing' happening. Whether at the physical, mental, emotional, psychological or being level, healing continues to happen through so many Masters in so many ways. Let us see the healing system created by the great Master, Patanjali, one of the greatest Masterminds of healing. Of the thousands of Masters who were born in the East, Patanjali is one of the greatest. According to Patanjali, there are seven energy centers or seven chakras in our body. These seven energy centers are the Masters of our physical, mental, emotional, psychological, intellectual and being level activities. Our entire physical, mental, emotional, psychological, intellectual and being level activities are managed by these energy centers. They can be broadly associated with certain glands in our bodies. Of course chakras are not glands but they can roughly be associated with some of the medical glands. Chakras are the energy centers which make medical glands work. We may wonder, 'What is the proof that something called a chakra exists? The concept of energy centers within the human system may have been dismissed a few decades ago for the simple reason there was no tangible proof of their

Content: existence. In recent times, Kirlian photography and other techniques have demonstrated that these chakras exist and they are the energy fields in us. This new kind of photography, called Kirlian photography, was made popular in Russia. With this, just like X-rays, you can discover a bone fracture, tuberculosis or any disease related to the bones. Just like X-rays, Kirlian photography is also used as a diagnostic system. Through this Kirlian photography, you can photograph the aura body of every single individual. Aura means the subtle light that is continuously emitted by our body. Our body emits a subtle light continuously. By photographing that light, Kirlian photographers are able to diagnose, six months ahead of its symptoms, any disease which is going to manifest in a person. Sickness can be prevented even before a person has any idea that he is going to be sick. This way we can be cured even before we have any knowledge of our illness on the physical plane. The energy aura will look shrunken. Research has also shown that if a person is depressed or dull, the chakras are seen only as button-sized energy centers. However, if the person is joyful, blissful, ecstatic or in a meditative state, these chakras seem to expand to the size of a car wheel even! When photographed, they appear as the size of a car wheel; that is, they expand almost sixty to seventy times. Through this photography, scientists have proved one more thing, that our emotions play a major role in the chakras; our mind plays a major role in our energy

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Chapter Name: What is Healing?

Content: centers; our mind matters. The play of mind over matter, that is the play of mind over our body, is proven by this Kirlian photography. There are thousands of other pieces of research recorded by various scientists who are working on the various spiritual healing systems. They have all come up with a big discovery, that the mind plays a major role in the body. Dale Carnegie says, 'Whether Jesus saves or not, we do not know, but prayer saves, because the very attitude of praying, the very attitude of meditating, creates positive vibrations in our being, in our body.' Each and every one of our chakras is related to some emotion in us. For example, love is related to the anahata chakra, the chakra in the heart center. In almost every language around the world, heart and love are two words that are synonymous. It's not that God created all the languages on a single day and made phonetic packages and dropped them, no. The different languages were created in different places, by different people and in different situations but it is a strange coincidence that in almost all languages, heart and love are two words that are synonymous. Of course, such a major thing can never be a coincidence. There must be some reason behind it. For example, you see one of your friends, a childhood friend, with whom you have cherished loving memories. You see him after ten years at the airport or in a mall. The moment you see him, you can feel something flowing from

Content: your heart region. The experience of this feeling is what we call love. Similarly, the navel chakra is related to worry. If you receive some news that is shocking, which you are not able to put up with, immediately you will feel the first blow in the navel region. The first problem will be a stomach upset. Again, in so many languages, when people hear sad news, they say, 'I can't stomach it.' The stomach is very sensitive to our thoughts. The moment worry starts in your system, it will express only in the stomach. The stomach is very closely associated with worry. You will always notice that people who are ambitious, who are perfectionists, will have ulcers. Too much perfectionism will lead to stomach trouble and ulcers. Ulcers mean that we are continuously grinding out worries. Continuously chewing on worries will lead to ulcers.

Content: Each and every emotion is related to one of your energy centers, one of your chakras. If that emotion is used properly, the chakra functions well. If the emotion is abused, the chakra shrinks and disease prevails.

Content: Rishis have declared that the very nature of man is bliss. Bliss can be defined as unchanging, everlasting happiness. It is our nature to experience bliss, even though most often we don't experience it this way. Children are always in bliss and progressively lose it as they grow up. Bliss is continuously happening in ourselves, yet we do not experience it at all. Why? We are constantly stopping the flow of energy that results in bliss; that is why. We do this through a bundle

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Content: of negative emotions. We actually stop the flow of bliss. And this, in turn, causes blockages in our chakras. Several negative factors like childhood traumas, cultural conditioning, restrictive or exhausting habits, physical and emotional injuries, or even just a lack of attention when you are craving it, all contribute to the blockage of the various chakras. For each difficulty perceived in our life, we develop a coping strategy. When the difficulties persist, these coping strategies become chronic patterns, anchored in the body as defense structures. And this, in turn, prevents the free flow of energy in our system, in our being. So we stagnate and become a closed system with the chakras blocked. It is important to recognize the blocks we carry, find ways to understand their source and meaning and find ways to heal them. All the chakra blockages are due to emotional imbalance only and emotional imbalance is nothing but the play of mind over matter. When our chakras are blocked, disease happens to us. If our body and mind are at ease with each other, we feel the easeness in us. If our body and mind are not at ease with each other, we feel the dis-easeness, the disease. Disease happens to us if our body and mind are not at ease with each other. The dis-easeness between the body and mind expresses as a disease in our body. For any disease, we can find the root of the disease from this disturbance of the associated chakra. Today, the modern day psychologists have proved that more than eighty

Content: percent of diseases are psychosomatic, meaning they have their root in the mind. They originate from the mind and then come to the body. The root is the mind, not the body.

Content: One lady was always worried about her health. As much as her family tried to convince her that nothing was really wrong with her and that it was all a play of her mind, she would not listen. One day, a visitor came to her house. As usual, she started complaining to him about her ill health. The family sat around in silence. The visitor said, 'Ma'am, I'm sorry, but you look fine to me. I don't think you should think this way about your health.' The lady cried out, 'What are you saying? I would collapse now if I was not so weak!'

Content: You see, the mind, beyond all logic, keeps telling us that we are sick. Actually the mind and body are two aspects of the same phenomenon; mind and body are not two different things. That is why the body is a psychosomatic phenomenon. Mind is the subtlest part of the body and the body is the grossest part of the mind. And they both affect each other; they run parallel. When we suppress something in the mind, the body will begin a suppressing path. If the mind releases everything, the body also releases everything.

Content: What we do not realize is that even our thoughts have power. The Hindu scripture, Brihadaranya Upanishad says, 'As our thoughts are, so is our will; as our will is, so is our action; as we act, we become.'

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Content: Our lives are driven by our thoughts and thoughts are energy. The cosmic energy is linked to individual energy. The separation we see is only our illusion. It is possible for us to tap into the inexhaustible cosmic energy, instead of which, we choose to live in a shackled compartment of depleted energy. When the chakras in our body are disturbed because of the suppressions in the mind, we see we are in disease. There are several techniques to release these blocks that will result in a healthy body. When the body is pure, when it is healthy, we see tremendous new energies flowing, arising, new dimensions opening before us, new doors suddenly opening to new possibilities. The body has much hidden power. Once it is released, we will not be able to believe that the body carried so many things in it, that it has so much potential in it. Joy and fulfillment keep us healthy and extend our life. Generally, we all carry this opinion in our minds, that our senses are destroying us, that the body is our enemy. We are taught from a young age that the body is our enemy and we have to control it. From childhood, we always hear statements such as, 'Don't go out in the rain. You will catch a cold. Don't play too much; you will feel tired. Don't overeat; you will have indigestion. Don't go out in the sun; you will get a headache'...and what not. When you start loving your body, you don't have to control it. You will have a deep relationship with it.

Content: Someone asked me, 'Don't we have to control the senses?' Yes, but how can you clearly tell the difference between the two? The only thing we know clearly is the gross body, so we start controlling it. Gradually, with a lot of practice, you can succeed in controlling your senses but you only become insensitive. When do you feel the need to control someone? When you don't trust them. You control your body because you have lost trust in it. You could end up losing all your sensitivity, your joy of life, without attaining anything.

Content: Instead, it is best to enter into a relationship of deep love, of respect, not only with your body, but with everything. By entering deeply into the system with love, clarity and compassion, we can get out of the negative aspect of it. So, the right thing to do is to cooperate with our body, to trust in our body wisdom. Drop all negativity, all hostility and all ideas of controlling the body from our mind. This will slowly free us from the idea that we are our body.

Content: Someone asked me, 'Swamiji, how can we drop control?' The truth is, whatever is controlled will express itself in some other way. It will refuse to be controlled! We just have to drop the negativity and see!

Content: A real incident:

Content: nce a young man came to me and asked me to help him stop smoking. I asked him how he had picked up the habit in the first place. He said once he had gone out with a group of friends who were all smokers.

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Content: Unfortunately for him, he met his father on the road that day. Seeing him in the group, his father assumed that he, too, had been smoking. When he returned home, his father yelled at him, refusing to believe that his son had not been smoking. The next day, the boy said, he smoked a whole pack of cigarettes, just to spite his father! In that way he gradually got addicted.

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Content: When he asked me how to drop it, I told him, 'Don't drop it. Go ahead and smoke but don't do it to prove anything to anybody. Don't do it to spite your father. And don't imagine that you have become mature and independent by smoking! Every time you pick up a cigarette, do it silently. Be conscious of why you are smoking. You will realize on your own.'

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Content: After just a few days, the boy returned to me. He said, 'Swamiji, I'm not able to smoke anymore! Doing it consciously, I realize that I was not smoking for the sake of smoking. Smoking is not that important to me.'

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Content: Then he added something which made me very happy. He said, 'Swamiji, I realize now that I have been abusing my body all these days, by pushing smoke into my system!'

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Content: When we become conscious of what we are doing, many things drop on their own. This is the only permanent solution. Of course, it may take a few days to awaken the intelligence. The patience to wait till then is what is called tapasya, the penance. In the meantime, don't fall back on

Content: second-rate intelligence that you have picked up from society, from the moral codes set up by society. Have trust in your body!

Content: We always live in deep fear of our bodies. We feel as if we are sitting on a volcano. The moment we sense a cold or fever coming up, the day we have the slightest headache, we reach out for a pill. It has become totally accepted for us to swallow pills for no reason. Most of our common ailments can be easily handled with a little care but we don’t credit our body with the power to heal itself. When our body can digest food, pump blood, mend broken bones and perform a thousand other complicated tasks without help from outside, can’t it take care of a fever or a headache?

Content: Allow your body to function according to its own intelligence and you will see for yourself how much wisdom your body has! There is actually something called body intelligence but we cannot see it until we drop the doubt! We must have the courage and trust to test it in our life; then we will find there is tremendous body intelligence available to us; there is no need to control the body at all. So by realizing the body intelligence, we become aware of our negativities and we can work towards removing them.

Content: If we can get the right technique, make enough time to use the right technique, unlock the chakra or open the chakra, and remove the blockage in order to come out of the disease it has caused, the disease disappears but some of us may not

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Content: be able to get the right technique and make enough time to meditate or may not be able to make enough energy to put into the meditation. For those kinds of people somebody else who is a meditator, who is a Master of meditation, can meditate and pass the energy onto the energy centers of the person who is in disease. The energy can be given. Here comes the question, 'How can energy be given?' There are a few people who are ready to believe that energy can be created by meditation but they are not ready to believe that somebody else can give that energy. Einstein said, 'Whatever exists is energy.' After Einstein developed his theory, physicists and a whole group of scientists turned towards spirituality because he was the first person who proved the truths declared by our ancient sages, the rishis. He said, 'Whatever exists is energy.' There is no borderline between matter and energy. The solid energy is matter; subtle matter is energy. We cannot have any boundary line between matter and energy. Matter and energy are one and the same at two different levels. Now, the modern-day physicists have come up with this idea of quantum physics. The atom, or part of an atom, is static and moving. Static and moving both are one and the same and happen simultaneously. Initially, the first group of scientists declared there were two particles; one static and the other moving. The next batch declared that the same particle is static at one time and moving at the another time. Now the next batch, the next group, has declared and proved, that it is static and moving at the same time; it is not static

Content: at one time and moving at the other time. It is static and moving at the same time; there is no time gap. There is no space gap and there is no time gap.

Content: Whatever you call matter is nothing but energy; whatever you call energy is nothing but matter. According to Einstein, energy is matter, matter is energy and whatever exists is energy.

Content: If you notice, from this conclusion, if matter can be given to somebody else, why can't energy be given? If I can give this kerchief to you, why can't I give you energy also? The only thing you should know is the right time and the right method of giving it. If this kerchief has to be given, it has to be lifted, and it has to be precisely handed over to your hand. In the same way, energy has to be given; it has to be channeled properly, given to your being. If a person knows the right technique of channeling and giving, energy can be given and it can be taken.

Content: The science of giving energy to a person who is sick or diseased or to a person who is in need is what we call healing. The energy can be given to any chakra, any energy center, that needs it and the energy center responds to it. Apart from the intellectual explanation of healing, we have thousands and thousands of records, medical proof and research reports done in our own ashram, to prove the science of healing, to prove how the energy is given and how and where it works in the system. It has been recorded and how it heals the disease has been proven.

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Content: Let me tell you who can give energy and who can receive energy. The man who has realized himself as energy, who has experienced himself as something beyond the body and mind, is the only person who is authorized or qualified to give energy. When you experience you are something beyond the body and mind, only then can you radiate energy. Until then, you cannot radiate energy. Once you experience that you are beyond the body, you are beyond the mind, you are pure awareness, you are pure energy; then, naturally, you start radiating the energy. You start expressing the energy which has become your experience; it will start oozing out and expressing around you. A man who has experienced that energy in his own being is the person qualified to give that energy. Whether we believe it or not, whether we accept it or not, whether we want it or not, we are in energy. Even if the fish fights his best with the ocean, he will be in the ocean. He may try his best to avoid the ocean; he may try his best to push the ocean away; he may try his best to escape from the ocean; he may try his best to jump from the ocean but he, again, will fall into the ocean. Whether he swims with the current or against the current, the fish is in the ocean. Just like that, whether you understand or not, whether you experience or not, whether you believe it or not, you are in energy. The person who realizes it is the one who is qualified to give energy; he is the one who is qualified to share his energy.

Content: People ask me, 'Swamiji, do you chant any mantra when you heal? Please teach us; we will also do the same.' I tell you, there is no other secret. I don't chant any mantra. When I touch, I just become the touch, that's all. My whole being touches; my whole being feels the energy. Your being is nothing but energy; whether you believe it or not, your being is energy. If your being is not energy, how would you be alive? You are alive; touch totally, that's all. It's the totality that heals; totality is always energy.

Content: Who is the one who is authorized to receive energy? Anybody who is in need can receive energy. There are a few who quickly use it. There are a few tips that can be given to use the energy very easily and quickly, to receive the energy in a beautiful way. People who are basically open-hearted, with an open mind, receive energy more easily and more quickly.

Content: Many people ask me, 'Swamiji, should we have faith to get healed.' I tell them, 'No, there's no need.' To know the apple is tasty you don't need to believe; just have a bite, that's all. You will know it is tasty. To know the sun is rising in the east you don't need to believe it; just open your eyes and see. You will see, there is no need to believe. To understand or to have healing you don't need to have faith. You need to have only one thing; an open mind, an open mind to experience. You don't need to have anything else. People with open minds, people with open hearts, receive and experience more easily and more quickly.

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Content: A small story: ne full moon night, an enlightened monk, a sanyasi, was sitting outdoors and enjoying the beautiful scene; the night sky, the stars, and the cool breeze. In a nearby hut, he heard a man complaining bitterly about the miseries of life. So he went and called the man saying, 'Come out, and enjoy this starry night, this full moon!' The man refused to believe that there was anything beautiful in this life. 'No,' he said. 'I don't trust your words. First, show me the moon, the stars; prove to me that they are beautiful, and then I'll come out!' The sanyasi cried, 'Just come out, and you can see for yourself!' But the man refused. Before even coming out, he wanted proof! How can you see unless you come out? So, after a minute, the sanyasi suddenly started shouting, 'Your hut is on fire!' Immediately, the man came rushing out of the hut. Then, suddenly, seeing the moonlit night and starry sky, he became lost in the beauty. He totally forgot that his house was supposed to be on fire. He started to tell the sanyasi, 'Oh, it is so beautiful! When you told me I didn't believe you but, now, I understand.'

Content: Then, suddenly, he remembered, 'You told me that my hut was on fire. You lied to me!' 'Yes,' said the sanyasi. 'I had to tell that lie to bring you out of your hut.' There is actually something called body intelligence but you cannot see it till you drop the doubt! You must have the courage and trust to test it in your life; then you will find there is tremendous body intelligence available to you. There is no need to control the body at all. When I say people with an open mind, people with an open heart, we always have the wrong idea that they are people who trust anything. This is the opinion of people who work and live based on logic and find it hard to trust anything. All our colleges and universities help us sharpen our logic but they have forgotten to help one of the major dimensions of human beings; their emotions. They help us sharpen our intellect; they help us sharpen our logic. They do everything to sharpen our intellectual and logical thinking but they have not done anything to help us grow emotionally. Because we have not grown, we have not experienced the emotional intelligence, the emotional existence of our being. We lack one major dimension of our life. If a man is born without eyes, born a blind man, can you explain to him what he is missing? No, you cannot explain to him what he is missing in his life. Similarly, the man who never experienced the emotional aspect of himself, the man who never trusted

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Content: something, can never understand what it means to have a deep trust, what it means to have deep emotional intelligence, what it means to have a deep open heart. It is very difficult to make him understand what it means to trust something or somebody. In India, you will see that every village will have a small shrine and most of the shrines are nothing but one small stone under a tree. Under the tree a small stone will be installed with turmeric, some ash and sandal paste applied on it; that will become God. And you will see hundreds of people going to that stone and getting healed, coming out of their physical diseases, mental illnesses, coming out of their problems. Nothing but simple stones under the tree, worshipped as God, heal people. So many people go to the river and pray to the river; they go to the sun and pray to the sun. They go to the temples and pray to the Gods. There are a few places where they go to the trees and pray to the trees. Trees are worshipped as Gods. Praying to the trees, praying to the stones, praying to the rivers and people get healed. How is it possible? How can this happen? There was beautiful research done by one of the American universities. I've read the results. They say they took one hundred patients with the same disease and medicine was administered to all one hundred. What they were given was not really actual medicine, but colored water. Neither the doctors nor the patients knew what the medicine was. Just colored water was given to all hundred patients. They say that after five or six days into the study, results showed that

Content: more than forty patients were completely healed. They were cured, and another thirty patients were more than sixty percent healed. This research was conducted not once, but eleven times in eleven different places. They did this research and said that at least forty percent of the people got healed. That is not a small number.

Content: This kind of therapy is called placebo therapy. A placebo is a false, pseudo medicine with probably no medicinal qualities in it at all but it has to be given in such a way that the patient thinks it is medicine, and even the doctor has to think it is medicine, so his gestures don't reveal the truth that it is not actually medicine.

Content: And so, the conclusion of this research is that whatever the diagnostic method, whatever the medicine, the very faith, the very belief that they are taking medicine, heals them. The very faith works miracles in human beings. After this research, the medical field has opened its eyes to spiritual healing, or towards the science of spiritual healing. Now we have started looking deeply into the science of spiritual healing. They started saying faith is one of the major aspects to get healed or to regain your health. Faith and trust are major aspects of your health. The very faith, the very trust, can do miracles in your physical system and forty percent means more than one-third of humanity can be healed just by faith. The energy of the emotion can work wonders.

Content: But the problem is that, in all our educational systems, all our universities, all our colleges, they train us to think in a

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Content: logical way; they help us to grow our intellect. They help our intellectual growth but none of them has taken any concern to help the emotional part of our being. Mystics, the rishis and Masters are the people who know about the whole aspect of human beings. They know that just intellectual growth is not enough and sometimes, it can be harmful. Just intellectual growth without enough emotional growth is harmful and that is what is happening today to society, to humanity. Just intellectually, scientifically, we have grown; we did all the scientific research and made discoveries but we forgot to develop our emotions: love, compassion, and all these higher emotions.

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Content: There is a beautiful saying in the Mahabharata. 'We all have three bala, three strengths.' One is physical strength; another is mental strength and the third is spiritual strength. Physical strength means physical health, physical well-being, physical power. The second is mental strength, mental power and intellectual power. The third is spiritual strength, the love and compassion - all these things.

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Content: If a man has only physical strength without spiritual strength, he will become just a rogue, a rowdy, a criminal. If a man has only intellectual strength without spiritual strength, again, he will become a cunning, criminal person; he will not do any good. Only when you are endowed with spiritual strength, the other two strengths will become useful for humanity. Somehow, we miss the emotional strength, the emotional being, which is why certain aspects of science have turned towards destruction.

Content: Today we have atomic weapons on planet Earth, which can burn this planet Earth not once or twice but seven hundred times over! All the countries have piled up atomic weapons which can burn planet Earth seven hundred times. Of course, this is a report from five months ago; now, it can even be seven hundred and three times or seven hundred and four times. What is the reason? It is the right knowledge in the hands of the wrong people. This is what happens when shakti works without buddhi. It is the surest way to destroy humanity.

Content: Our intellectual growth without emotional growth leads to more and more danger. We all have worked towards the intellectual growth but have forgotten the emotional dimension. Our rishis, our mystics and our Masters have worked on the emotional dimension, on the development of emotions; that is why, in India, every village will have a big temple, a bigger temple than the school of that village, even bigger than the basic necessities of the village; all other things are secondary. The temple is the primary thing for any village or settlement to be created because they have worked continuously to develop the emotional dimensions of a human being. Mystics know that the development of emotions is the basic necessity for holistic growth, for holistic development. Once a man is developed on the emotional level, he will have everything; his life will be heaven.

Content: Sarada Devi, wife of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, says in one place, 'Live with deep trust; live with deep faith; live with

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Content: deep love.' Of course, when you love, there is every chance you can be cheated. Sarada Devi says, 'Even if you are cheated, if you live with love, you will live like God on planet Earth. On the other hand, even if you are not cheated, if you live without love, your life will be deeply dry and dead.' Your life will be just a dull, dead leaf. Without love, even if you create all the comforts of life, you may have a bed but not sleep. Only with love, trust, compassion and faith can you have deep sleep. Somebody asked me, 'Swamiji, in India, our ancestors wasted all their energy by building temples; every village has got big, big temples. What is the need of having such big temples? In other countries, they have all built big, big universities and scientific research centers; they've all built beautiful infrastructure: roads, bridges, all the possibilities for economical growth, but our rishis, our Masters, only built temples. What is this? They've wasted their energy.' I told them, 'Fools, you do not understand the rules of yourself. You do not know the greatness of the rishis and mystics. You say they wasted their energies in the temples; you do not know these temples are the root cause for our emotional development. Because of these temples, our country is out of psychological disorders and diseases. India is such a big country, yet only one percent of the population takes any medicine related to mental disorders, related to mind.'

Content: However, in the other developed countries, we know the ratio. In some countries, two out of every three patients are diagnosed with depression and take psychological medicines. People are very proud to say, 'If I don't take my pills, I cannot live.' It is emotional development, emotional growth, that gives a holistic growth to your personality. If you are whole, you are holy. Anyone who has grown emotionally, who has opened their heart, is qualified to receive healing.

Content: So open your heart and receive the healing energy of the Divine and get healed physically, mentally, emotionally and ultimately, spiritually, by the Divine Grace, by absorbing His energy. May you feel and experience, be in, be one with, nithyananda - eternal bliss.

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Chapter Name: NITHYAM DHYANAM ANANDAM

Content: The concept nithyam or nithya means the Eternal Truth and refers here to the intellectual understanding of this Truth. Dhyanam, which means meditation, here refers to the technique of changing the intellectual understanding into an emotional experience. Anandam is perpetual bliss and is the result of the merging of nithyam and dhyanam. This is the way for the ultimate goal of life. Nithyam is the intellectual understanding of what is true and what is untrue. In Sanskrit, they say, 'Nithya anithya vastu viveka.' Nithya is the intellectual understanding of what is eternal and what is ephemeral. Then dhyanam, which is to make the intellectual understanding an emotional experience, internalizing the intellectual understanding and anandam, the result or the ultimate experience.

Content: This is also expressed as, 'shravanam mananam nidhidhyasam.' Shravanam is the knowledge of the Ultimate Truth. Mananam is experiencing it. Nidhidhyasam is the outcome or bliss.

Content: Nidhyam is actually creating a new mental set-up which will guide you from inside. Usually we are all used to guidance from external sources. By relying on an external source for guidance, you will be dependent. The external source of guidance will not be available all the time and it will not be one hundred percent correct. In whatever problem you may have, you cannot express the problem, or present the exact situation to a third person. So the guidance, which is based on your presentation, cannot be one hundred percent correct. No external source of guidance can feel the situation exactly as you do. Moreover, it will not be available all the time.

Content: So, the guidance should be customized to come from inside. That is why Masters, the enlightened Masters, have created some ways, some techniques, for getting guidance from within. When the Masters achieved the ultimate success, their own realization of Truth, they created a formula by which they, themselves, achieved the goal, so that all others could achieve the same goal. Just as a scientist creates a formula for getting the same result in an experiment that he did in his research center in the outer world, Masters created a formula for the ultimate experience in the inner world. They are called 'teachings' and 'meditation techniques'. When a Master gives some way or formula for having the same experience that he had spontaneously, that

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Content: becomes a technique. When you listen to the Master's words, the mere listening will create a new mental set-up called nithya. Intellectual understanding itself will be sufficient. It will give you the power, the courage, to lead your life smoothly. People often think that mere intellectual understanding is a waste but intellectual understanding alone can make a change in your mental set-up. It is the only way for changing the mental set-up from mithya, which is untruth, to nithya, Eternal Truth.

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Content: Normally, our mental set-up is addicted to worry and fear. We continuously go on worrying. We create our own long list of worries. If, occasionally, the list of reasons to worry is finished, instead of worrying for the same reason and getting bored, we start worrying for no reason at all!

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Content: Usually we worry about external things. If there are no external causes for worries, we start creating them. This may be astonishing. The agony is, this is the simple truth. One day, if we feel there is no reason to worry, we start thinking, 'Oh, today, I have nothing to worry about. That means something really big is waiting. Tomorrow it may unearth. What shall I do?'

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Content: Moreover, our mental set-up fuels it. It adds various 'past experiences' of ours or something picked up as information on the way.

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Content: Once, a middle-aged man approached me, seeking my blessings for his divorce. I asked for the reason. The man

Content: said, "You don't know, Swamiji. No man can live with her peacefully. Yesterday morning, while serving my morning tea, she spilled the full cup of hot tea on me. I can't bear it anymore."

Content: I said, 'See, spilling a cup of tea is not a crime and not a reason for divorce. She might not have done it intentionally. Please think it over. This reason is not solid.'

Content: The man was not ready to give up. He said, 'Swamiji, no. Today it was tea, tomorrow it may be acid.' See the mental set-up? Once he has decided to go for the divorce, his mind builds up from what he might have seen in films or crime novels.

Content: This is our present mental set-up. We go on worrying. At one point in time, if we feel it is too much, if we feel totally exhausted, we just go for some medication and settle down for some time. We enjoy some peace. We experience a ray of energy, guidance from inside. Once our energy is regained, once we feel energetic, we again dive into worry. This way, the way of mental set-up, of continuously diving into suffering, is called mithya: unreality or untruth.

Content: Psychologists say, 'If our enemy is strong, we feel ourselves to be great.'

Content: By the same token, we also think ourselves to be great if we have too many worries in store. Throughout our life, we travel the same path, worrying for some time, relaxing for awhile and then again, worrying. We have made worry a basic

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Content: necessity of life. Our mind lives on it. It is the axis around which our mind revolves. If we suddenly realize that all our worries have gone, we feel rattled. We feel lonely. With worries we are comfortable. This mental set-up is dangerous. This is a vicious cycle. This has to be changed; the entire mental set-up needs to be changed. If you go on addressing the present problem alone, the external causes of worry alone, you will be traveling on the same path again and again. This path is of worrying for some time, feeling exhausted, relaxing, regaining energy, then again starting to worry. Some technique should be worked out to address the entire problem. If we need to weed out a thorny bush, is it sufficient to cut off its leaves? No, the bush should be removed from the root. Not only that. Something else should be planted there. Otherwise, the bush will grow again and again. Likewise, some way should be found to change the entire mental set-up. For change to take place, for the cognitive shift to happen, our first step should be intellectual understanding. We should first understand our mental path, the way in which our mind reacts. Only then, our intelligence will start yearning for a change. In Sanskrit, there is a beautiful word 'tat tvam asi', which means, 'You are that'. Whatever we think of as ourselves,

Content: we are that. Ultimately, we are That, the Self, the Truth and the Divinity within us.

Content: If you think yourself a hero, you are that. If you take yourself for a mediocre person, you are that. If you condemn yourself for being a failure, you are that. Hero or Zero, the choice is yours.

Content: Thinking of ourselves as heroes, taking responsibility for ourselves, is what we call liberation. At whatever level we take responsibility, we are liberated to such an extent. Taking responsibility cuts the mental path of going continuously towards suffering. Once we feel responsible, we will stop thinking about the external factors as being responsible for our suffering. We will slowly move towards realizing that only our own actions are responsible for our suffering. We will start yearning for a way to come out of it. In this way, we are liberated, liberated from the vicious cycle of mithya - unreality, untruth and illusion.

Content: Then the cognitive shift happens and we turn towards nithya, understanding of Truth, reality.

Content: In ancient times, society was divided into four levels, or varnas, now called the caste system. Each caste was set up based on the percentage of liberation, level of consciousness and the level of expression, not by birth but by mental set-up. It was declared 'guna karma vibhagama', by their mental set-up and deeds.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: Those who sold their time were on the basic, first level. They were called shudra. The very word shudra means 'formula'. They were at the very base of society. They were the foundation stone on which the entire society could safely stand.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: The next set of people was those who sold products. They were called vaishya.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: Those who were confident, who could give protection, those who could protect in the outer world, were called kshatriya. Leaders and warriors fell into this group.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: The creamy upper layer, those who sold wisdom, who were able to give protection not only in the outer world, but also in the inner world, were called brahmana. Those who could build confidence in the masses about the inner world, who could give courage to society to travel in the inner world, who could guide and assure safety in the inner search, were called brahmana.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: Their feeling of responsibility towards society was the only criteria. If we can strongly feel responsible for our existence, at our being level, if we have the courage to shoulder the whole responsibility, we will start feeling and radiating the joy, the bliss, the ananda.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: The brahmana group was a spiritual group. They became spiritual beings or enlightened Masters.

Content: For the kshatriya, the leadership group, those who led the mass in the outer world, one day or the other, they would face the 'depression of success' in their life. Then, they would turn towards spirituality. They would eventually turn their journey to the inner world from their previous focus on the outer world alone. This is called 'vishada yoga', or the path of confusion. Leaders, after they feel they have achieved everything they wanted to achieve, not knowing for what and why they wanted to achieve, feel depressed. This is called depression of success.

Content: At this point, they turn towards spirituality.

Content: For the vaishyas and sudras group, satsang, or participation in a spiritual group, will be the starting point. A beautiful hymn by Sankara says:

Content: Satsangatve nissangatvam

Content: Nissangatve nirmohatvam

Content: Nirmohatve nischala tatvam

Content: Nischala tatve Jeevan Muktibi.

Content: It means, just by being in satsang, one can be liberated. In satsang, we continuously hear and receive spiritual information, again and again. We have the path shown to us. This is what is known as shravana or nithya.

Content: The clear understanding of the message leads to a turn in our journey towards our inner world. We will stop running towards material success, outer world success and start

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: journeying towards the ultimate success. This turn is the cognitive shift. The path of the journey is mananam or dhyana. The solution here is not readymade. In this area, readymade solutions seldom work. Readymade solutions cannot be permanent. They tend to change. A small story: nce, a young man wanted to cross a forest. He approached an old man, who had crossed the forest earlier, for guidance. The old man said, ‘Walk straight into the forest for one kilometer. You will see a lion. Take a left turn and walk for half a kilometer. You will see an elephant. Take a right turn and walk for one kilometer. You will have crossed the forest.’ Will it work? But he had no other way, no one else to guide him. Readymade solutions tend to be of this sort only. He can guide you only by his experience but the lion and the elephant may not be there. What to do? Alternatively, he could give a torch and say, ‘Go ahead. You will find your way across the forest for yourself.’ This is the right solution. In this journey, we will go on experiencing one thing after another, one truth after another. We will continue our

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: journey saying 'na iti, na iti', 'this is not true', this is not true'. This is called 'nissangatvam', discrimination between truth and untruth, reality and illusion.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: We will not be attached to the by-products. We will be in 'nirmohavatvam', in a detached state.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: The final experience, the ultimate success, is bliss, ananda or nididhyasam, that which is experienced. That is jeevan mukthi or liberation.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: We may doubt whether liberation of the whole society and making everybody a Brahmana will affect the social set-up. Will it not interrupt and unsettle the workings of society?

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Once we are liberated, we start feeling the responsibility. We start feeling energetic and we will be fond of doing our work. Society will flower in joy. If now we are selling our time, and we feel our responsibility, we will start strongly feeling we are selling only our time and we will not be able to waste even a second of it. We will be more devoted to our job.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Only when we are not feeling responsible, boredom occurs in our job. We feel stress and strain.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Once our internal intelligence starts feeling the change, the shift begins happening but for the shift to happen, the feeling should be conscious. There are two things, conscious and unconscious understanding.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: If one is consciously aware of the fact that smoking is injurious to health, giving it up will be easier. If one is aware that smoking is injurious to health but are unable to avoid smoking, that is unconscious understanding. For a change to happen, the understanding should be conscious. If we are consciously aware of the vicious cycle in which our mind works, the need for a change will come up. There are many meditation techniques to change our mental set-up. If, by any one such technique, the new mental set-up is experienced, the need will become an urge. If the new mental set-up is once tasted, the longing will be intensified. A small story: Once there was a queen by name of Madalasa. She gave birth to seven children. All of them got enlightened by age seven and moved out of the kingdom. Their father, the king, was puzzled. How could all seven in a row get enlightened? He probed into the issue and found that Madalasa had taught them one simple word 'tat tvam asi', 'you are that what you are'. Just by internalizing the very word tat tvam asi, they got enlightened. The present mental set-up is in the instinct level. This is the level of just responding to the situation and reacting without thinking of its repercussions.

Content: understanding takes us to the level of intuition. This is the state of responding to the inner voice and hearing the internal guidance. Once the internal guidance is heard, the question becomes the quest, the urge becomes urgent, and the cognitive shift happens.

Content: Now, there is only one choice before us, accepting the truth, moving into dhyana, meditation and liberation, experiencing and radiating bliss. The other choice is refusing the truth and continuing to be in bondage. Whether we accept it or not, we agree or not, we take it or not, the truth is truth.

Content: There are many fish in a river. Some swim downstream, along with the current. Some swim upstream, against the current but both are in the same river. In the same way, whether we realize it or not, we like it or not, we are in bondage. We have only one choice, moving into meditation or dhyana and being liberated, or simply continuing with our own routine and being in bondage. The choice is clearly ours. Both ways we are responsible for our position.

Content: Just be aware. We are responsible for our position. In whatever position we may be, strongly be conscious of the fact that only we are responsible for our position. Feel strongly that we are responsible for everything. It may be anything, a boon or an accident but be sure, we are fully responsible. We are responsible for the accident, also.

Content: You may ask, 'How Swamiji, how can I be responsible for accidents?' Be very clear, there can be no effect without a

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: cause. Every effect has a cause. If we are unable to see a logical cause, we name it as an accident. So be sure, only we are responsible for the accidents occurring to us. By feeling responsible, we will start enjoying the happening. Without waiting for the result, the happening itself will be enjoyable. We will start bubbling with joy. We will start radiating bliss. In the outer world, even if we succeed, we may end up in depression of success. It may create a low mood but, in the inner world, action itself will give us peace and joy. In the scriptures, it is said, 'Separation from Krishna is also a joy.' Even if the result of the action is suffering, it will also be enjoyable.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: People often complain of lack of time to meditate. It is not lack of time; it is a lack of responsibility. If we strongly feel that we are responsible for our present position and consciously are aware that, by meditation,we can have a change, we will find sufficient time to meditate.

Chapter Name: Nithyam Dhyanam Anandam

Content: Just for the next twenty-four hours, feel responsible for each and every thing. Let this be your meditation. Feel responsible for your existence. Feel responsible for the boons you enjoy. Feel equally responsible for the accidents, also. Let this 'responsibility feeling' solidify in you. May the cognitive shift happen in you.

Chapter Number: II

Chapter Name: GRATITUDE AS PRAYER

Content: In general, our religious life starts with prayer and ends in gratitude. Many of us learn to pray as part of our daily life, from early childhood, watching our elders. Prayer has got different dimensions. It matures as we mature. Prayer is the bridge to divinity and our higher consciousness. Prayer is the bridge to take us beyond the sufferings of planet Earth. Prayer is the technique; it is the method to lead us to the superconsciousness state. Prayer has got different forms. Nothing is higher, nothing is lower. Whichever way we want to start, we can start. We will naturally grow towards the higher level of consciousness. Let us understand the various dimensions of prayer step by step. First thing, prayer starts at the physical level: going to the temple, praying to God, praying to the idols of gods and

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: goddesses, doing some puja or worship by uttering a mantra, sacred chants, and perhaps going further by doing some havan, sacrificial fire rituals, with the help of priests. Prayer should start in a physical way. Many people come and ask me, 'Swamiji, why do we have idol worship in Hinduism? Many other religions do not allow this.' I always tell them, 'No, we do not have idol worship. We worship through the idol, not the idol itself.' There is a big difference. What we do in Hindu worship is to worship through the idol; it is not idol worship. When we stand in front of the idol, do we pray, 'Oh stone, give me a boon, or, Oh copper, please give me a boon. No! You say, 'Oh Siva please give me boon; Oh Rama please give me a boon; Oh Vishnu, please bless me.' We relate to the divine through idols. Idols are bridges to take us beyond the forms that we see with our physical eyes. There is a beautiful incident in Master Vivekananda's life. Vivekananda was wandering all over India. He went to a king's palace. The king was an intellectual person. The king was educated in the western system of thought. He started questioning Vivekananda, 'Why should idols be worshipped? Why should idols be respected?' Vivekananda said, 'Just give me a few minutes. I will explain it to you,' and he changed the conversation to another topic. Suddenly, Vivekananda called one of the ministers of the king and said, 'Can you get me the photograph of your king which is hanging on the wall?' The minister said,

Content: 'Why not.' He, at once, brought the photograph and gave it to Vivekananda. Vivekananda said, 'Can you spit on it?' The minister was shocked. The minister said, 'What are you saying? It is the photograph of our king. How can you say I should spit on it?' Vivekananda said, 'What is this? It's just a paper and canvas cloth. Why are you taking things so seriously? Just now your king said, 'Why should idols be respected? Why should idols be worshipped? It is just paper, canvas cloth and paint.' The minister said, 'No! It is not just simple canvas cloth and paint. As long as the paint and canvas cloth were separate, it was cloth and paint. The moment it started representing our King's form, it became a picture of our king, a portrait of our king. I can't spit on it. It represents our king. I can't spit on it.' Vivekananda turned to the king and said, 'Understand, even when your photo can receive so much respect, why not God's photo? Why not God's idol? Why not God's murti (form)?' The problem is that the moment we read one or two books on philosophical matters, especially Western philosophy, we start thinking we know all the philosophy that there is to be known. We start thinking we have become God. The moment we start thinking we have become God, we start idol worship to ourselves. There are a few people who always think they are flying but they don't even move. Some people who have read some

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: books think they have achieved everything, just by reading a few books. Ramana Maharishi says beautifully, 'As long as you feel you have a body, as long as you eat and you take a bath, as long as you think you have to maintain your body, its good to do the vigraha puja, idol worship.' He says, in a humorous way, 'The sandal that is applied on your body starts smelling within an hour but, when you apply it to God's idol, it never gets any bad smell.' The food which we eat in three hours, how and what it transforms into, we know but never the food offered to God's idol. So, as long as we have the idea that we have a body, it is good to start doing idol worship. There's nothing wrong in that. It's actually a technique to go beyond the form. As long as we have body consciousness, we can pray. This is the physical level of worship, the first level. There is one more piece of scientific research which I wanted to mention here. A great scientist went and stayed in the Amazon forest with a small group of tribal villagers. The tribal group is famous for one thing. They have a belief that, by making the idol of a certain person, they can either heal him or kill him. They just make an idol of the person who they want to heal or kill and, if that person needs healing on his hands, they put medicine on the idol's hands and the person gets

Content: cured. If they want to kill that person, they just break the hands of the idol and the person dies.

Content: Of course, when you hear it, it sounds like a story but this scientist wanted to know the truth. So he went with his three assistants and stayed with the tribe for ten years. Understand, not for one or two days - ten full years he stayed with them. He learned their language; he learned their way of living; he ate their type of food; he lived in their houses; he related and mingled with them and he almost lost his identity and became a tribal member himself. He video recorded and observed at least a hundred incidences.

Content: He says that he recorded at least a hundred incidences, either by video graphing, audio recording or observing the experiences of the tribe. After doing research over the hundred incidences, he says that more than ninety-six of these recorded incidences proved to be one hundred percent effective. The other four created effect, but not one hundred percent. Ninety-six percent is not a small number. One hundred incidences, and ninety-six proved effective. He says they use a sort of vibration, a chant, a mantra.

Content: First, they make an idol and they use the vibration or mantras to invoke that person into that idol. Then they treat the idol to heal the person or kill him. If he is a criminal, they kill that idol or, if he has to be helped, they treat the idol and heal him. You would be surprised to hear one more thing: they say they are even able to relate to a person, who is dead already. Even with a person who is

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: already dead, they are able to relate through the idols. This scientist has proved it. He has clearly observed and recorded how they are doing it. When I read the research report, I realized that if we can relate with an ordinary man, an ordinary mortal through an idol, can't we relate with existence, with Parashakti in the Brahmnda (Universal Power), the immortal divine through an idol? Of course, we can! The spiritual people, the great mystics, who dived deep into their inner consciousness, who achieved something at a spiritual level, created wonderful techniques for others also to reach the same level. Idol worship, or the vigraha puja, is one of the techniques created by those great mystics. There are two kinds of religion. One is just a social religion that provides societal laws as to how many times we can eat, how many hours we can sleep, how many women we can marry, how many kids we can have, a religion that states just the social laws or social rules that we all should abide by. There is another kind of religion, a spiritual religion, to show us the true nature of our being, to help us reach the ultimate consciousness, to help us taste the ultimate bliss, the spiritual bliss. The second kind of religion works in the inner world, in the mystery of mysteries, in a deeper, conscious level. The Masters of this second kind of religion created the techniques and gave them to us in the form of idols. The

Content: Goddess Kali is the philosophical representation of spiritual wisdom. She says that, when we cut our ego with the Gnana khadga (the sword of knowledge), we shall be protected and taken care of. When we cut our ego with the sword of knowledge, Divine Existence will protect us and existence will take care of us. So, every form of God is a representation of some or the other great spiritual wisdom.

Content: First, prayer starts at the level of physical worship; then next it goes to the level of verbal worship. Next, we go to a higher level. We chant the stotra, the songs, the mantras, the sacred chants, we do the nama japa (chanting the name of gods) and worship the divine and we pray. Stotra or repetition of God's names is verbal prayer. Verbal prayer plays a major role in keeping the mind at a higher level. Remembrance of some sacred syllable and its continuous repetition with awareness is very important. Without awareness, it becomes an unconscious habit. Please don't do that.

Content: There are many people who repeat, 'Rama, Rama, Rama...Krishna, Krishna...hey, did you switch off the oven... what's for lunch today?' Then they start again, 'Rama, Rama, Krishna, Krishna...' No! Chanting should not be done unconsciously but with conscious awareness. Again and again, consciously repeating the Lord's name can lead you to higher consciousness. The more our mind is filled with some sacred syllable, sacred words, the more our inner chattering will be cleansed.

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: Our inner chattering has so much garbage in it and unnecessary things that we throw into our inner chattering. There is so much repression and suppression. With so much anger and violence we suppress inside our being, where do we think it will all go? It will go and disturb our inner chattering. Our inner chattering is made up of nothing more than suppressed feelings and desires inside us.

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: If we suppress too much violence, too much sex or too much anger, those things only will come out in our inner chattering unconsciously. All our inner chattering is made up of the same stuff which we put inside. What we put inside, that is what will naturally come out. If we put mantras inside, the sacred syllables inside, the divine inside, the stotra inside, good words inside, we will see we are radiating the same beautiful words, the same beautiful feeling and the same beautiful bliss.

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: The more we chant the right words, the less we will be chanting the wrong words. People ask me, 'Why should we chant God's name?' I tell them, 'If you don't chant God's name, you will be chanting your wife's name.' That is what we will be doing in our life. If we don't chant God's name, we will be chanting somebody else's name in our mind.

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: Our mind cannot remain unoccupied; our mind cannot be empty. If we chant the Lord's name, we will be occupied in a positive way; we will reach the higher consciousness. Otherwise, we shall be chanting our boss's name or our wife's name or our friend's name. It's a cleansing process.

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: Our inner chattering will have a new experience; our being will have a new space. It will experience a new consciousness when we use the technique of verbal prayer, by using some divine name or divine prayer. If you do not like any divine name, you can use words like 'Om Shanti', or just 'Om'. Even these words will help you tremendously. Even these words can create a beautiful vibration in you. Just the other day one boy was asking, 'What is the meaning of the word Om?' Om is the sound from which the whole world was created. Today, in this modern day, physicists and scientists are agreeing with this concept, that from sound came light, and from light came the whole universe. So the whole thing goes back to sound. You would be surprised to hear this: in a place called Uttara Meru in Tamil Nadu, they were doing maha mrityunjaya homa (fire ritual for Lord Shiva), with the mantra of Shiva. The homa was going on continuously for three days when a group of westerners, who had come there as tourists, were curious to know what was going on. They asked, 'Why are you throwing such good varieties of food into the fire? Why are you putting all the valuable cloth into the fire? Why are you burning it away? Why are you destroying all these things?' It seems the priest said, 'No! We are not throwing it away or destroying it. We are offering it to God.' The tourists

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: laughed and said, 'What are you talking about? How will it reach God if you put it in the fire?' The Priest said, 'We invoke God into the fire using mantras, before making the offering to him. The curious tourists photographed the whole process using Kirlian photography. Everything on planet Earth emits a particular light. Not only living things, even dead things, emit a particular color ray of light. Using Kirlian photography we can actually photograph that light, the aura body. So the tourists took a few Kirlian photographs. You will be surprised to hear the results. In all the photographs, one could see the dancing form of Shiva. In all the photographs, the dancing form of Shiva appeared in the same way. Mantras are not as simple as we think. When we do mantras with devotion and consciousness, they create their own effect, their own energy. This is the second level, verbal prayer. The third level is important. That is mental prayer. When prayer reaches the third dimension, it becomes mental. First, it is physical, second verbal and third mental. At the mental level it is called meditation. At the physical level, it is called worship, or puja; at the verbal level it is called japa. At the mental level it is called dhyana or meditation. When we reach this level, neither our body needs to be involved nor our inner chattering needs to be involved. Just our being will be involved.

Content: In japa, it is a communication; in dhyana it is a communion. In prayer, it is a communication between us and God. In meditation, it is a communion between us and God. We start experiencing the taste of the Divine. We start experiencing a glimpse of the Divine. We start experiencing a glimpse of bliss.

Content: One important thing – as long as we pray or chant, God and we are different. The moment we enter into meditation, we start realizing the Godliness in us. We start experiencing the Divine in us. We start getting a glimpse of what we have been worshipping all these years. A unique communion starts between i and I.

Content: It is not even between us and God because God has become a part of our being and we have become a part of God. The drop merges into the ocean; the ocean merges into the drop. We start experiencing the glimpse; we start feeling we are the part of the whole. The advaitic (non-dualistc) experience, or a feeling of oneness, starts happening inside our being.

Content: It is a different kind of experience. As long as we do the chanting, we are worshipping. The moment we enter into meditation, we merge with the object we worship; we become one with it. We start experiencing the consciousness.

Content: The fourth and final level is where neither we nor God exist. Both disappear into one experience. That is what I call 'gratitude'. In the beginning, at the physical level, we worship; in the verbal level we chant; we repeat the lord's

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: name; at the mental level we meditate and we experience the Divine in us. At the fourth level, the spiritual level, not only do we experience the oneness; the idea of oneness also disappears. Only one thing remains, gratitude. You may ask, ‘Towards whom?’ Towards nobody; just gratitude that is not directed towards anybody. As long as the gratitude is directed to somebody, there are two people: the person who gives and the person who receives but, at the ultimate level, it is not even directed to anybody. It just overflows. Energy expresses itself in the form of gratitude. Energy expresses itself in the form of bliss. A deep feeling of fulfillment happens in us. That is what we call samadhi. Samadhi is the state where the being, after becoming totally fulfilled, expresses itself in the form of energy, where there is nobody who expresses and there is nobody who receives. Just the experience remains. It is a profound experience which can be described by only one word and that is gratitude. The experiencer and the experienced both merge into the experience. In that moment, only one thing exists, the experience. Neither the experiencer nor the experienced exists. Both of them merge into one being. That is what one calls experience. And when this happens, you will feel that life is showering so much on you. You will feel that it is too much. You feel

Content: like you can't tolerate it anymore. It is so much joy, so much ecstasy, one starts losing one's identity; one starts losing one's boundary. We can have an identity as long as we have a trace of suffering. The moment suffering disappears, we lose our boundary. An important thing we need to understand is that we can have ego only if we are suffering. Our ego cannot exist without our suffering. Suffering is the root of our ego. It's an important thing we need to understand. We always think that suffering disturbs the ego. No! Suffering enriches the ego; it feeds the ego. One more important thing, if our suffering is less, our ego is less. We feel we are too small, so we increase our suffering so that we can feel we are somebody. Ask anybody how his or her life is and they will say, 'Nobody should suffer like me. I am the person who has suffered the most on this planet Earth. Even my enemy should not get this much suffering.' They know how to write their biography. Ask anybody to write their biography; this will be their first sentence to introduce themselves. The less suffering we have, the weaker the ego. The more the suffering, the stronger our ego becomes, so we always exaggerate suffering. The problem is after some time we forget we exaggerated and we get caught in the magnified suffering that we created ourselves. We might disagree and say, 'No, no, you don't know my life; you don't know, my suffering and how much I have

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: struggled and all those things but, if you deeply look into things, there might be a little suffering but ninety-seven percent of the suffering that you actually feel will be your own magnification. And if you consciously stop magnifying your suffering by repeatedly talking about it, the little suffering that is actually there will also disappear because of your increased awareness.

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: A small story:

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: ne tabloid journalist died and went to Hell but he begged to God, 'Please let me enjoy heaven for one day. I am going to be in Hell for eternity anyway. Can't you be a little compassionate towards me, and give me just twenty-four hours in Heaven?'

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: God said, 'You are a dangerous guy; you can't be allowed in Heaven. You may write something about me! You are a difficult guy. You can't be let in.'

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: You can believe lawyers, but not tabloid journalists; they are a little difficult! But somehow he convinced God by saying, 'No, no. In twenty-four hours what can I publish? Moreover, your guys are the editors, so I can't write anything without their knowledge. Please let me in only for twenty-four hours.'

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: God said, 'Alright, come in.'

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: The moment he jumped in, he started making demands. 'If I can convince at least one of your journalists to go to Hell, will you give me a job here in Heaven?' God thought to himself, 'My people will never be convinced to go to Hell.' So he agreed and told the journalist, 'Ok, if you can convince at least one of my journalists to go to Hell, yes, then you can stay.' Now this guy started spreading wild rumors. You know how these guys are capable of spreading rumors! He started spreading rumors that a new Satan, a new devil, had taken over Hell, that Hell had become totally high-tech and that they had centralized air-conditioning, and that the eternal hell concept was all wrong; hell had been completely updated; anybody who wanted to go there could do so and live luxuriously; and the other major news was that they want to start a new newspaper in Hell; if you were experienced in Heaven, there was every chance you could become the editor there in Hell. He started spreading these rumors. If you want to spread any news, all you have to do is tell the news to somebody and ask him or her to promise not to tell others. Just ask them to promise not to tell anyone. You can be sure that person will tell his or her friend along with the statement, 'Don't tell others; it's a secret.' Ten minutes later, even the neighbor's dog will be barking that news! Anyhow, the news had now spread all over Heaven.

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: After twenty-four hours, the journalist was about to exit the gates of Heaven. When he reached the gate, God stopped him and said, 'No, no, no-you cannot leave Heaven. You have to stay here.' The journalist was surprised and asked, 'Why?' God said, 'You do not know. We had ten editors and all ten ran away. They are now in Hell. We don't have any journalists. We don't have anybody to do our job. You have to stay here.' By now, after repeating the same thing again and again and again, this guy himself was slowly convinced that, in Hell, everything was updated and he was going to find himself a good job. He said, 'No, no. I also want to go to Hell. I want to become an editor.' God said, 'Fool! You are the guy who started that rumor. Why have you started believing your own stories? You are the one who created the rumor.' The journalist said, 'No, no, I may have started the rumor but, when ten people believe it, there must be some truth in it. When so many people believe it, it cannot be a lie. There must be some truth in it. Let me go there and check!' Just imagine! The rumour that this guy started, he himself started believing! When we repeat the same lie again and again, we start believing it to be the truth. We, also, start falling in the same net that we laid. We, also, start believing. One religious preacher I know in India who is very aggressive came to me for healing. He told me that he had a personal

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: problem that he wanted healing for. After healing him, I was casually speaking to him. I asked him, 'Why are you preaching so aggressively? You are condemning all other religions. Your religion is great, no doubt, but why should you condemn others?' He said, 'If I am not doing what I am doing, I feel insecure. When I see 10,000 people believing what I am saying and following my ideas, I feel safe. I am convinced that what I am preaching must be the Truth. I feel 10,000 people cannot be fools. I may be telling them the wrong things but, when so many people believe, there must be some truth in it. So, when 10,000 people are converted, I feel stronger in my faith.' The preacher himself developed a conviction through the response of the people to his teachings! That is how we all are. When many people believe what we say, we fall into the same net that we created. That's what we all do in our lives. We create an idea that our life is full of suffering and misery. By and by, we start believing it. If we analyze ourselves, we will see, very clearly, that there are thousands of miseries created just by our own mind, our own words. It is simply our own creation but we forget that we are the ones who created it and suffer in what we ourselves have created. When ego disappears, we merge into bliss. When we are merged with bliss, the ego disappears. When we go really

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: deeply into our being, when we become one with Existence, when we experience, only then gratitude flows. A pure joyous feeling overflows from our being. It is just gratitude, nothing else. There is a beautiful meditation in Sufism. They say the only way to relate with God is through gratitude because only with gratitude can we start experiencing Him. With prayer, we can only relate with Him. However, with gratitude we start experiencing Him. With gratitude, the deeper level of our being, our spiritual layer, starts experiencing. Let us understand these few concepts. Let us appreciate the things we have been showered with in our life. Let us feel gratitude for all God has showered upon us. Let us not always think about what next, what next and what next. I never forget to tell this small, and very nice, story in this context: ne guy was praying to God in the temple, 'O God! Please give me just one hundred dollars to take care of myself for one week. Within the week I will get a new job and soon after I start working, I will start donating money to you. Just for one week, give me one hundred dollars to take care of myself.' A priest who overheard his prayer felt very compassionate and thought that he should help this guy. However, not being rich himself, he put a fifty-dollar bill in an envelope

Content: and went to this person and handed it over to him saying, 'God told me to give you this envelope. Please have it.' The guy ran to his house, opened the envelope, saw the fifty dollars and started praying again. 'Oh, God! Next time when you send money, please send it to me directly, not through this priest. He's taken half of it as a commission.' The guy did not bother about the fifty dollars that he received; he was only bothered about the fifty dollars that he did not receive. This is how the mind works. We bother about the things that have not happened to us but we never appreciate the things that have happened to us. If we are asked to write the things that God has not given us, will that list ever end? It will start with a limousine and it will go on longer than a limousine. And if you sincerely start writing the things that God has given you, again that list will never end, because every single breath that we inhale and every single breath that we exhale is given to us by the Divine. It is God's own gift to us. Can we say we earned it? No! The Divine gives every inch and every moment of life to us. Can we say we made it? Can we say we created it? No! Our very life, our existence, is given to us by the Divine. If we honestly make a list of all the things which were given to us by God, again it would never end. So many things, so much has been showered on us. Can we say we created

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: our life? Can we say we created one single inhaling or exhaling breath? No! A small story: big science conference took place, where the entire science community came to the conclusion that, now man could do anything that God could do. 'Why should there be a God at all? We can do everything ourselves. What do you say? God creates man? We can also clone. What do you say? Whatever God can do, we can also do.' They decided that they had become so advanced that now they could tell God to go and take a rest. We didn't need him anymore. 'We are doing everything ourselves. Let him retire'. God said, 'Alright, let us have a small competition.' First, He created something to fly. Immediately, the scientists created the airplane. Then He created fire. The scientists also created something to destroy the fire. The competition went on and on. Finally, God just took some dust and created a human being. The scientists also took some dust and created a human being by cloning. God said, 'No, no, no stop! Bring your own dust and do it, not my dust! The scientists were stumped! Do you understand? We cannot create anything that has not already been created by God. The Divine has given us everything but, when we take our life for granted, we live in deep misery. Two lists of

Chapter Name: Don't Worry, Be Happy

Content: things are there in front of us: one is the list of things that have been given to us, which have been showered on us, and the other is the list of things that we don't have. Now it is up to us to either look at the things we don't have, and continuously suffer and make our life miserable or look at the things that we have and continuously feel joy, ecstasy and enjoy it. Whether we want to look at this side, or the other side, is our choice. Bliss is our choice; gratitude is simply our choice. It is we who are supposed to decide what our life should be like; whether it should be hell or heaven. It is simply our choice. When we look at the things that we are showered with, which are given to us, then we will understand how much Existence protects us; Divine takes care of us; God showers on us. One guy went to a real estate agent and wanted to sell his house. After a week, he ran to the agent and said, 'I don't want to sell my house. Please withdraw the advertisement.' The agent was surprised. He asked, 'Why? Why don't you want to sell?' The guy said, 'Only after seeing your advertisement in the paper, I realized my house is the dream house that I have always wanted. My house is exactly what I wanted it to be. It's really exactly what I always wanted it to be. Only now I realize how beautiful my house is.' We take things for granted. We take people for granted. We take life for granted. Ultimately, when we

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: granted, we feel bored. When we do things unconsciously, we start feeling bored. If someone comes along and tells us how beautiful things are around us, we wake up to it suddenly. Instead, we should be able to see the beauty in what surrounds us, all the time. It is a shame if someone else has to point it out to us. When people tell us that we are lucky, that we are surrounded by beauty, we should be able to say, 'Yes, I know I am lucky and I am surrounded by endless beauty.' How many people can say this of themselves? The intelligent ones will be able to say this. The ones who have gone deep inside will be able to say this. The foolish ones will deny the statement and remain in suffering.

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: There was a great saint who lived in Maharashtra. During the last ten years of his life, he was asked to eat the same type of food. He was asked to eat a little rice and greens everyday, because his stomach had become sensitive. Every day, he would eat the same food. The devotee who cooked for him got tired of cooking the same food. Every day the same food! She went to the Master and asked, 'Master, are you not bored eating the same food? I am bored of cooking the same food. Are you not bored eating the same food?' The Master said, 'I am not eating the same food. How can I eat the same food? Everyday it's different. Everyday it's new. How can I eat the same food the next day? No!'

Chapter Name: Gratitude as Prayer

Content: When we generalize, we feel bored. When we understand, when we live moment to moment, everything looks fresh. When we live moment to moment, things really look fresh

Content: and we live and feel grateful to Existence. When we take things for granted, we feel bored, dull, tired and depressed.

Content: The biggest problem I see, at least in this country, (referring to USA), is people's attitude of taking everything for granted. That is why, even though there are so many possibilities for entertainment, you feel so much boredom. Depression has become a big disease.

Content: Obesity is nothing but taking our food for granted. When we take food for granted, we try so many new techniques. Again we feel unfulfilled. Again we try some other techniques. Continuously, we take things for granted and try new things. The more we try, the more we get bored and depressed.

Content: When we live with deep sensitivity, with deep understanding, without taking things for granted, we experience a new space in our being; we experience a new joy in our being. Then we experience gratitude towards the whole of life. We feel gratitude towards life, towards people, towards situations and ultimately, towards the whole of Existence.

Content: Gratitude is the ultimate prayer and the ultimate attitude. Gratitude is the greatest attitude that we can have towards human beings, towards life and towards situations and towards God.

Content: May you experience this gratitude and through this gratitude, the Eternal Bliss, nithyananda.

Chapter Name: APPENDIX

Content: About Paramahamsa Nithyananda Paramahamsa Nithyananda is an enlightened master living amidst us today. With a worldwide movement for meditation and inner bliss, Nithyananda offers solutions for situations as practical as every day stress to the quest for something as profound as enlightenment. Nithyananda left home at a young age and traveled the length and breadth of India, visiting holy shrines, associating with several yogis and mystics during this period. He realized his intrinsic knowledge through the paths of meditation, yoga, knowledge, devotion, Tantra and other Eastern metaphysical sciences. With an enlightened insight into the core of human nature, Nithyananda has defined his mission for humanity at large. Rooted in the vedic tradition and embracing all world religions as paths to the ultimate Truth, Nithyananda draws

Content: people from around the globe, crossing all societal, cultural, language, age and gender barriers.

Content: Since its inception, Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam in Bidadi, Bengaluru, India has been a spiritual center for devotees from all over the world. The organization renders innumerable services and programs. The worldwide ashrams and centers offer programs in Quantum Spirituality, where material and spiritual worlds merge to create blissful living.

Content: The services provided by the organization include ■ meditation ■ yoga ■ corporate leadership programs ■ free energy healing through the Nithya Spiritual Healing system ■ free education to youth ■ promoting art and culture ■ satsangs (spiritual gatherings) ■ free medical camps and eye surgeries ■ free meals at all ashrams worldwide ■ a holistic system of education for children through the ashram gurukul ■ a one-year residential spiritual training program in India and more. The Life Bliss Foundation, located in Los Angeles, USA spreads the powerful teachings and meditations cognized by Nithyananda to centers in North America, Europe and other parts of the world.

Content: Nithyananda says, “Enlightenment flowers when individual consciousness disappears into Universal Consciousness. When you start living enlightenment, you automatically raise the human consciousness around you. Living enlightenment holds the key to global peace and inner bliss. Every individual should be a pioneer in the transition of human consciousness to Divine Consciousness.”

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Programs and Workshops

Content: Nithyananda Mission offers specialized meditation programs worldwide, to benefit millions of people at the levels of body, mind and spirit. A few of them are listed below: Life Bliss Program Level 1 (LBP Level 1) - Energize yourself A chakra based meditation program that relaxes and energizes the seven major chakras or subtle energy centers in your system. It gives clear intellectual and experiential understanding of your various emotions such as greed, fear, worry, attention-need, stress, jealousy, ego, and discontentment. It is designed to create a spiritual effect at the physical level. It is a guaranteed life solution to experience the reality of your own bliss. When you are liberated from a particular emotion, you experience a new world, a new energy. It is a highly effective workshop, experienced by millions of people around the globe. Life Bliss Program Level 2 (LBP Level 2) - Death demystified! A meditation program that unleashes the art of living by demystifying the process of dying. This program creates

Content: the space to detach from ingrained and unconscious emotions like guilt, pleasure and pain, all of which stem from the ultimate fear of death. It is a gateway to a new life that is driven by natural intelligence and spontaneous enthusiasm

Content: Life Bliss Program Level 3 - Atma Spurana Program (LBP Level 3 - ATSP)

Content:

• Connect with your Self!

Content: An indepth program that analyzes clearly the workings of the mind and shows you experientially how to be the master of the mind rather than be dictated by it. It imparts tremendous intellectual understanding coupled with powerful meditations to produce instant clarity and integration.

Content: Life Bliss Program Level 3 - Bhakti Spurana Program (LBP Level 3 - BSP)

Content:

• Integrate your Devotion

Content: A program that reveals the different dimensions of relating with others and with your deeper self. It clearly defines relationship as that which kindles and reveals your own unknown dimensions to you. It allows you to experience the real depth and joy of any relationship in your life.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Life Bliss Technology (LBT)

Content: Life Bliss Technology (LBT) is a residential program for youth between 18 and 30 years of age. With its roots in the Eastern system of vedic education, this program is designed to empower modern youth with good physical, mental and emotional health and practical life skills. By nurturing creative intelligence and spontaneity, and imparting life skills, it creates economically self-sufficient and spiritually fulfilled youth. Above all, it offers a lifetime opportunity to live and learn under the tutelage of an enlightened master.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Inner Awakening

Content: An enlightenment intensive program for sincere seekers offering yoga, powerful teachings, meditation, initiation and more. This program is an intense experience to prepare the body-mind system to hold and radiate the experience of 'living enlightenment'.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Nithyanandam

Content: An advanced meditation program for seekers where the presence of the Master and the intense energy field lead one

Content: to the state of nithya ananda - eternal bliss. It offers a range of techniques from meditation to service to sitting in the powerful presence of the master.

Chapter Name: Kalpataru

Content: Kalpataru

Content: An experiential meditation program sowing in you the seed of:

Content: Shakti, the Energy to understand and change whatever you need to change in life,

Content: Buddhi, the Intelligence to understand and accept whatever you don't need to change in life,

Content: Yukti, the Clarity to understand and realize that however much you change, whatever you see as reality is itself a continuously changing dream,

Content: Bhakti, the Devotion, the feeling of deep connection to That which is unchanging, eternal and Ultimate, and

Content: Mukti, the Ultimate Liberation into Living Enlightenment when all these four are integrated.

Content: This program empowers you with the energy to align your actions with your intentions so you move with success and inner bliss.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Nithyananda Mission Highlights

Content: Meditation and de-addiction camps worldwide: Over 2 million people impacted to date.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Nithyananda Mission Highlights

Content: Nithya Spiritual Healing: A system of cosmic energy healing administered free through 5000 ordained healers, through our worldwide ashrams and centers, touching 20,000 people globally every day - healing both mind and body.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Nithyananda Mission Highlights

Content: Anna Daan: free food program: 10,000 nutritious meals distributed every week through all the ashram anna mandirs for visitors, devotees and disciples thus improving health standards.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Nithyananda Mission Highlights

Content: The Nithyananda Order and its training: Spiritual aspirants ordained as Sannyasis, Brahmacharis and Brahmacharinis: who undergo years of intensive training in yoga, meditation, deep spiritual practice, Sanskrit, vedic chanting, life skills, and who run the 100% volunteer based ashrams of Nithyananda Mission worldwide, working in all Mission activities.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Nithyananda Mission Highlights

Content: Nithya Yoga: A revolutionary system of yoga in the lines of sage Patanjali's original teachings, taught worldwide.

Content: Nithyananda Vedic Temples and Ashrams: Over 30 Vedic temples and ashrams worldwide.

Content: Meditation Programs in prisons: Conducted in prisons and juvenile camps to reform extremist attitudes - resulting in amazing transformation among the inmates.

Content: Medical Camps: Free treatment and therapies in allopathy, homeopathy, ayurveda, acupuncture, eye check-ups, eye surgeries, artificial limb donation camps, gynecology and more.

Content: Support to children in rural areas: School buildings, school uniforms and educational materials provided free to rural schools.

Content: Life Bliss Technology: A free two year / three month program for youth teaching Life Engineering and the science of enlightenment.

Content: Nithyananda Gurukul: A modern scientific approach to education combined with the vedic system of learning - protecting and developing the innate intelligence of the child who flowers without repression, fear or peer pressure.

Chapter Name: Appendix

Content: Corporate Meditation Programs: Specially designed and conducted in corporate firms worldwide including Microsoft, AT&T, Qualcomm, JP Morgan, Petrobras, Pepsi, Oracle, American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) – with focus on intuitive management, leadership skills and team work.

Content: Nithyananda Institute of Teachers’ Training: Over 300 teachers trained to teach: transformational meditation programs, Quantum Memory Program, Nithya Yoga, Health and Healing Programs, Spiritual Practice Programs and more.

Content: Media: Articles in national and international newspapers and magazines, carrying transforming messages from Nithyananda.

Content: Nithyananda Publishers: Over 4700 hours of Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s discourses transcribed, edited and published in-house and made available in stores through books, DVDs and CDs.

Content: Life Bliss Gallerias: Worldwide stores and mobile shops retailing recordings and books of Nithyananda’s discourses and Nithya Kirtan recordings in 23 languages.

Content: Nithyananda Meditation & Healing Centers: Worldwide, offering meditation and healing services.

Content: Nithyananda Sangeeth Academy: Music, dance and other forms of art taught and encouraged in youth and elderly alike - live and through internet.

Content: Free Discourses on YouTube: Over 500 free discourses on www.youtube.com - wisdom from the Master, easily accessible. Ranked top in viewership.

Content: Support to scientists and researchers: Continually bridging gaps between science and spirituality through researches on spiritual energy and healing.

Content: Nithyananda Youth Foundation: A collection of inspired youth, building a divine and dynamic society with a common ideology of peace and enlightenment.

Content: Nithya Dheera Seva Sena: Through transformation of self, this volunteer force of Ananda Sevaks trains and functions in the service of humanity, also serving as relief wing working towards disaster recovery management.

Chapter Number: Appendix

Chapter Name: Contact Us

Content: Listed below are some of the main centers of Nithyananda Mission. USA: Los Angeles Nithyananda Vedic Temple 9720 Central Avenue, Montclair, CA 91763 USA Ph.: +1 909 625 1400 Email: [email protected], [email protected] URL: www.lifeblissfoundation.org MALAYSIA: Kuala Lumpur 14, Jalan Desa Gombak 5, Taman Desa Gombak 53000 KL, MALAYSIA Ph.: +601 78861644 / +601 22350567 Email: [email protected], [email protected] URL: www.mynithyananda.com

Content: INDIA:

Content: Bengaluru, Karnataka

Content: (Spiritual headquarters and Nithyananda Vedic Temple) Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam, Nithyanandapuri, Off Mysore Road, Bidadi, Bengaluru - 562 109 Karnataka, INDIA Ph.: +91 +80 27202801 / +91 92430 48957 Sacred Banyan tree at the ashram in Bangalore Email: [email protected] URL:www.nithyananda.org

Content: Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Content: Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam Leelaghar Bldg, Manikarnika ghat Varanasi, INDIA Ph.: +91 +99184 01718

Content: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

Content: Sri Anandeshwari Temple, Nithyananda Giri, Pashambanda Sathamrai Village, Shamshabad Mandal Rangareddy District - 501 218 Andhra Pradesh, INDIA Ph.: +91 +84132 60044 / +91 98665 00350

Chapter Number: Appendix

Content: Salem, Tamil Nadu Nithyanandapuri, 102, Azhagapurampudur (Behind Sharada College), Salem - 636 016 Tamilnadu, INDIA Ph.: +91 +427 2449711 Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu (1008 Lingangal ulla Ananda Linga Kshetra) Nithyanandapuri, Girivala path Tiruvannamalai - 606 604 Tamilnadu, INDIA Ph.: 04175 237666 / 94449 91089 / 94450 56262 / 94874 52555 E-mail: [email protected] Rajapalayam, Tamilnadu Nithyanandapuri, Kothainachiarpuram, Sankaran Coil Road, Rajapalayam, Virudhunagar District Tamilnadu, INDIA Ph.: +91 +4563 230001 / +91 +98421 30008 Pondicherry Nithyanandapuri, Embalam to Villianoor Main Road, Embalam Post, Pondicherry - 605 106 INDIA Ph.: +91 94420 36037 / + 91 97876 67604 For further information visit www.nithyananda.org

Chapter Name: Nithyananda Galleria

Content: A wide range of products for blissful living: Nithyananda's insightful messages on video, audio tapes, CDs and books in over 26 languages. Enlivening music and chants for meditation and inner healing. Meditation and yoga books, kits and CDs for rejuvenating body, mind and spirit. Energized rosaries, bracelets, photographs, clothing and gift items for a stimulating life style. Ethnic energy bead jewelry for men and women for tranquility and continued high energy. Visit www.nithyanandagalleria.com or www.lifeblissgalleria.org for more information. E-mail: [email protected] & [email protected] Suggested for Further Reading Living Enlightenment (Gospel of Paramahamsa Nithyananda)

Chapter Name: Appendix

Content: Guaranteed Solutions Don't Worry Be Happy Nithyananda Vol. I Instant Tools for Blissful Living You Can Heal Follow Me In! The Door to Enlightenment Songs of Eternity (A coffee table book with Nithyananda's messages and pictures) You are No Sinner So You Want to Know The Truth? Uncommon answers to Common Questions Over 500 FREE discourses of Nithyananda available at http://www.youtube.com/lifeblissfoundation