1. isbn 979-8-88572-272-8

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I am not here to answer your questions. I am here to question your answers. - Swami Nithyananda

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-272-8

Created by SWAMIJI'S DIVINE GRACE, through RAJI

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from Dhyana Peetam.

About the Master

Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda Swamigal is a truly revolutionary spiritual master of our century.

Swamiji embarked upon his spiritual journey at a very young age. He traversed the length and breadth of India on foot, studying with great masters in India and Nepal and practising intense tapasya with extraordinary vigour.

He experienced the final flowering of consciousness on 1st January, 2000 - the sacred day of his Enlightenment.

With a pragmatic yet compassionate approach to life and spirituality, and an enlightened insight into the core of human nature, Swamiji has reached out to touch millions of hearts across the world.

Swamiji's mission is simple - to awaken the divinity that lies latent in man. To this end, he inaugurated the worldwide movement for spirituality - Dhyana Peetam - on 1st January, 2003. With its spiritual nervecentre in Bidadi (near Bangalore in India) and over 100 centres around the world, Dhyana Peetam works towards the transformation of humanity through the inner transformation of the individual.

Swamiji's divine healing powers and simple, practical meditation techniques help you blossom in every sphere of life - be it physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual.

When you understand the root of your anger, you will naturally be free from anger.

—PARAMAPUJYA SWAMI NITHYANANDA

Copyright © 2018 Krupa Nithyananda (Regd.) All rights reserved.

Published by: Krupa Nithyananda (Regd.)

Nithyananda Vidyalaya, 2nd Floor,

Rajaram Road, opp. BSNL Office,

Bidar - 585401, Karnataka, India.

Phone: +91 8488 888111

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.krupa-nithyananda.org

First Edition: August 2018

Reprint: November 2018

Reprint: March 2019

Reprint: August 2019

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Reprint: November 2021

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ISBN 978-93-88392-04-8

Laser Typeset at: Nithyananda Vidyalaya, Bidar.

Printed at: Thomson Press (India) Ltd.,

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Dearest Swamiji, is it necessary to renounce the world to realize the self?

To realize the self, there is only one thing you must be willing to renounce: ignorance.

Self-realization has nothing to do with giving up the world. To run away from the world is just as bad as clinging to it; in both cases it is evident that the world is controlling your actions. Aversion to the wordly is as much a product of ignorance as attachment to it, they are just two sides of the same coin.

A person can live in a cave in the mountains and be obsessed with sansar (worldiness), while another can live in the world and yet be completely detached from its pushes and pulls (sannyas). To take sannyas is not to renounce the world, but simply to renounce both attachment and aversion to the world. The very same life, when seen through the mist of ignorance, is sansar - and when seen in the clear light of self awareness, becomes sannyas.

It is true, sannyasins always lead a simple life, untouched by sansar. But for

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Beloved Swamiji, how can we surrender the ego, when this wanting to surrender is itself an expression of the ego?

A question to you: How are you going to surrender the ego, when it does not exist?

Suppose you are sitting in a dark room. You want the darkness to go out. But can you push it out? Can you fight darkness and force it to leave the room? NO! No matter how long you keep on trying, you are ultimately going to be defeated - and that too by something which does not exist!

The ego is like darkness, it has no positive existence. Just like darkness is simply the absence of light, the ego is nothing but the absence of awareness. To struggle to kill the ego is like struggling to push the darkness out of the room.

To really expel the darkness, what you need to do is to forget all about dealing with the darkness. Focus your energy on Light instead. Just bring a small lamp into the room, and you will find that the darkness has fled on its own! So, I tell

[Bring a lamp of awareness into your being. The ego will flee on its own.]

you to forget all about the ego. Instead, focus on bringing a lamp of awareness into your being. When your entire consciousness has become a flame, you will find that the ego is no more.

The ego is an illusion. You cannot surrender it when you are unaware - because you don't know how. Of course, you cannot surrender it when you become aware either - because then you realize that there is nothing left to surrender!

What you have heard, read, been taught - 'Surrender the ego in order to attain self-realization' - this is an utterly nonsensical idea. It can happen only the other way round. Self-realization dawns, and suddenly you cannot find the ego anymore. The surrender has aleady happened, just like that.

However, I am glad that the question has arisen in your being. The ego is the root cause for all your anxieties, sorrows, tensions. It is your doorway to hell.

To actively feel that you want to drop the ego, to feel the the need to be rid

of this burden is itself a step towards awareness. It shows that you are stirring from your sleep!

Dearest Swamiji, whenever I am in your presence all questions disappear and everything seems possible. But when I am away from you, all the familiar

If a question disppears on its own in my presence, then it is time to realize that it was not a true question at all; it was merely a play of the mind.

When you are with me, the mind is no more in control - you simply flow into meditation. You become a loving, serene silence. In this state, only a question that is truly your question, one that is completely relevant to you, will still remain with you.

In my presence, you become so intensely aware, so completely present that

doubts creep in. Why does this happen and what can I do about it?

there is no space for questions to arise. When you leave my presence, the mind is free to impose the past and the future upon your present - for what else are your questions but the play of the past and the future upon your present?

Just like the ego, there is no point in fighting with or condemning the mind. It is a pointless struggle which you will be sure to lose. Instead, it is enough to be aware that this is the very nature of the mind; it can be expected to behave in no other way. It is bound to bring in anxiety, confusion, doubt. Just to be conscious of this is enough. Do not pass judgement on the mind for its inane activites - even to get angry with your mind is to lose your energy to it. As you witness the workings of the mind, you will slowly become aware that you are not the mind - you are more than the mind, you are the watcher. Once deprived of your energy, the mind cannot go on! In the place of the chaos of thoughts that you call your mind, a clear, intense consciousness will arise. At that moment, all questions dissolve and the mind is no more.

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to a doctor just to question the value of every pill in his prescription, is there?

So ask your questions, by all means. Just watch the attitude with which you ask them!

Beloved Swamiji, you tell us to 'give our all' in love. But what if the love is not appreciated or returned?

If you are truly in love, you will 'give your all' naturally. Love is an unconditional outpouring. In love you don't stop to ask yourself whether the other person deserves your all. In fact, there is no question at all of the other person's worth. Love is a gift. If you were to measure the other person's worth and give an equal and exact measure of love in

return, that would simply be a bargain. It would be Business, not Love. In true love, this question of 'Should I give my all?' would not be raised at all!

Now the issue of the love being appreciated. Tell me, what is your reason for loving? Is love a performance for which you need to be applauded? It is enough that you love. What is the need to look for any further reward? To ask for a returning of love is to seek some kind of control over your beloved. You refuse the other person the freedom not to love you in return. This is a kind of possessiveness, where you cage the other in the prison of your expectations. And as I keep repeating, love can never, never blossom in captivity.

Listen carefullly: there are two kinds of love - love as a Quantity, and love as a Quality.

When love is seen as a quantity, it results in the kind of selfish little

[How long will you Quantify love? Transform it into a Quality of your being.]

[Don't drop your partner; drop your ego. Let go of your ego, and Love will enter that space.]

exchanges that most people make all their lives. You hold out a tightly wrapped parcel of love to your man or woman, and expect them to promptly return an equal-sized parcel to you. If your partner should choose to give her parcel to someone else, or even to just open it and spread the love around, you feel cheated and angry. You are both bound to each other by a pact of reciprocation. You have to be Made for Each Other. Sooner or later this kind of arrangement leaves you cramped and frustrated, and in anger you withdraw your parcel and go off to find someone else to exchange it with. Or else your partner does that. Sounds familiar?

Now the kind of love I would like you to grow towards is love experienced as a quality of your very being. This kind of love is simply an outpouring of one's joy and gratitude, just for being alive. It is a fragrance of joy, it spreads itself around unconditionally. It does not need

an object, it does not need a return gift. This kind of love is like sunshine or rain; it gives of itself unconditionally, and whomsoever stands within its circle can experience the warmth or the freshness without question. This love always enriches; it is the only kind of love that can be enjoyed without fear or guilt.

For Love to become your quality, you must be willing to surrender yourself completely. Only in an egoless state can this love arise. This is not easy, but you can make a beginning. You will discover that simply through love and gratitude, you begin to let go of the ego, just a little. And as you let go, more and more love enters into that space. Try practising this in your relationships. There's no need to make a fuss about loving; don't become serious in your love - just be totally sincere.

Beloved Swamiji, in India we are brought up on rituals and idol worship. Are you for or against these?

First of all, I am neither for or against idol worship or rituals - or anything, for that matter!

But there is a reason why idol worship is so common in India, and elsewhere in the East. For a beginner on the spiritual journey, it is difficult to even conceive of the Divine in the abstract. When given a form, it is crystallised into something he understands and can relate to. With an idol, he can commune with the Divine in the language that he is familar with. Our thousands of deities are nothing but expressions of the Divine. And yet anyone can talk to them, pray to or play with them, seek solace or give thanks. The whole awesome, indefinable nature of the Divine is scaled down to comforting proportions in the form of the deity. It has to be this way; the Divine without form is simply too terrifying a concept for the ordinary mind.

At a deeper, subtler level there is one more message being reinforced - the idol before you is cast in the same form as yours, and yet it is divine. What does that say about you? Think about it.

Even if you are an idol worshipper, there is no need to condemn yourself. As you grow spiritually, you will find yourself able to commune with the Divine just as well without an idol. Just as children stop playing with dolls as they grow older, you will drop the idols of your own accord when the time comes. But right now if it gives you a sense of well-being to worship your favourite deity, do so by all means. Spirituality is a vast, shoreless ocean. When you are just learning to swim, it would certainly help your confidence to hold onto a lifebuoy, something you can be sure of, something that won't let you down. As you grow stronger and surer, you will naturally shake off its hold and enter the deep waters, freely and fearlessly.

[An idol is nothing but the formless Divine, brought within your reach.]

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a familiar territory, a space where you feel secure and tranquil. In an atmosphere that years of worship have sanctified, bowing before your beloved deities and listening to the chanting of well-known mantras, a silent, meditative state is naturally induced in you. At this time you are completely open and surrendered, receptive to my energy. This is the time when I can truly work upon you, without your knowledge and without your resistance. Can you undertand me now?

(Of course, I have never given up being a child, and so I perfectly enjoy my play with these beautiful dolls - but that is another matter!)

Beloved Swamiji, what is Karma?

Let me give you an idea about karma.

Whenever an action has been started, but not fulfilled, there exists a force that pulls you to fulfil it, to bring it to completion. This force is karma. Whatever you have tasted, desired but not experienced ultimately, will continuously draw you to repeat that very experience, till you feel fulfilment. You will keep repeating that action till you actually become that experience. Because you are fulfilment. You enter the body just to fulfil this action. In the course of fulfilment you meet all these things, these 'troubles'.

This is the explanation which I give for karma. All the other words - it is because of my bad karma that I got this disease / it is because of my good karma that I met Swamiji - all these are just things we say after the event has happened. Whatever has happened, we give it the name karma.

The word karma is much misunderstood. I am not giving you an explanation

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work towards being set free.

Someone once asked me, what if the cow learns to bite and break the rope?

First of all, do you know where the rope is? To which limb it is tied?

Where it begins and ends? Where to bite? How to bite? With an ordinary

cow and rope, the cow can see these things. You people don't even know what

or where your rope is! So whatever I can give you is only a glimpse, an

inspiration to enter into me, to enter into the experience.

Dearest Swamiji,

since the mind is

Before I can answer that, you need to understand the working of the mind.

The mind is a composite of 4 functions: manas (the part that recieves

only 'inner chatter', is it necessary to drop the intellect in order to approach the divine?

information about the outer world from your senses), chitta (the memory or record of cosmic knowledge), buddhi (intellect) and ahankaar (ego). Beyond all these is the atman (self). All information is tracked through these areas of the mind.

For instance, when you see a marigold flower, the nonverbal information, 'yellow flower' is absorbed by your manas from the eyes.

This information is sent to chitta, which matches it against all records of flowers previously seen, and determines whether this particular flower is a familiar one.

The file then passes to the buddhi, which concludes that the yellow flower is a marigold, it is large, it is not a fragrant flower and so on.

The comes the turn of the ahankaar, which is in charge of generating

[When Intelligence awakens, the ego dies a natural death.]

opinions based on self-interest, e.g. 'I like this flower', or 'I think the neighbours' garden has better marigolds' or whatever. Based on the information supplied by the ahankaar, the atman decides the Plan of Action: 'Pick the flower!' or 'Water the flower! or 'Throw it out!'

The unfortunate thing about this arrangement is that by the time the information reaches the atman, it has already been filtered by the ahankaar - with the result that what you see and act upon is not reality, but only a subverted version of reality that the ego wants you to see. No wonder you remain in ignorance and confusion, and come to the conclusion that inner chatter is all that the mind is capable of!

When intelligence awakens, the ego dies a natural death. For the first time, the atman takes direct conrol of the situation. It's like President's Rule! Tremendous sources of energy open up and become available. The

absorption of information no longer depends only on the five senses. Consequently, information processing and decision-making become infinitely swifter and more efficient - with the result that it appears miraculous to ordinary eyes. This is the state in which yogis fly or teleport objects and perform other such miracles. This is the magical state which is perceived as being in harmony with the Divine.

So you see, to approach the Divine, what you should be willing to drop is not the mind or the intellect, but only the ego. Don't make the mistake of throwing out the baby with the bathwater!

Dearest Swamiji, when a relationship is not working out, when should we persevere and when should we abandon it and get on with our lives?

I think what you are asking me is, just how much conflict should one be prepared to put up with in a relationship? Right?

Love is the most dangerous path there is! Only those with great courage dare tread this path. At any bend on this path you have to be prepared for great joy, great pain, great beauty, great struggle, great understanding.

Yes, there is bound to be conflict in every relationship, because every individual is unique, and no two personalities fit together so perfectly that no rough edges remain.

If there is conflict, don't sweep it under the carpet out of fear that it will destroy the relationship. On the contrary, ignoring it can do just that. Allow the conflict. Examine it. See what you can learn from it. Is it stemming from something in yourself that you are secretly unwilling to acknowledge?

It is only in an intimate relationship that you discover yourself. Your partner is like a foil reflecting your true nature. After all, who else dares point out your

worst flaws with so much clarity!

So examine the nature of your conflict. Also remember, in every relationship, there is a time to stay together and a time to move on. What kind of love do you share? Are you really, truly, surely in love? Do you relate deeply with each other, being to being?

Don't look for reasons and arguments, don't intellectualise the process - simply turn the question inwards with complete honesty and trust. The answer will arise on its own.

If your answer is Yes, then understand that the issues of conflict are mere ripples on the surface of your relationship. These are just situations created by the ego to counter the sense of 'no-self', of surrender, that comes with love. Work around these situations with love and care.

If the answer you are hearing is No, then maybe it is time to move on. To

[There is a time for holding on, and a time for moving on.] remain in a relationship where there is no true relationship of being to being is sacrilege, unfair to you both. Love, for you, may be elsewhere. Don't search for it; just be open to the possibility. In the meantime, don't let the conflict destroy the relationship, destroy you both. Nobody deserves that. Accept that this is not the person for you, and move away without resentment or bitterness. Don't destroy your own capacity for loving. To become bitter will only cause you more suffering, and destroy your faith in Love itself. And that is the most dangerous thing that can happend to anyone.

Beloved Swamiji, What is suffering? Why do we suffer?

To start with, it will help to realise that suffering is not an event in your life - it is a response to an event. Whether you suffer or not in a particular situation depends entirely on your reaction to that situation.

When do you undergo suffering? When you fall ill? When your neighbour gets a new car? When your partner leaves you for someone else?

Well, suppose you decided to just accept these situations without anger or resentment. Just as they are, so be it. Would you still suffer as much? After all, there is nothing inherently painful about your neighbour getting a new car. Even if there is pain in the moment, as when a loved one leaves, you cannot wish it away. Try to accept the inevitability of the moment, without reaction.

[Nothing can make you suffer without your permission.]

It is ONLY your negative response to an experience that allows it to hurt you. Don't you see, no one or nothing can make you suffer without your silent permission?

Make a habit of witnessing experiences minus your personal judgement.

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[Suffering can be a shortcut to inner growth!]

Because suffering can be a powerful catalyst to growth. Just like a seed first has to rupture before a plant can grow and blossom, intense suffering can break down the defenses of your ego, leaving you open and vulnerable to existence. With your usual thought patterns shattered, you begin to see things as they actually are. You begin to recognize a subtle distance betwen you and the pain - that it is not 'your' pain, someting intrinsic to you. In fact, pain is simply the response you've chosen to that particular situation. And once you see that, how can you suffer anymore? In consciously accepting your pain, you truly let go of it.

Suffering is not necessarily the key to bliss. But if you learn your lesson well, suffering can certainly open your eyes to the unreality of suffering. It can teach you how unneccessary it is to suffer at all. This is what I call 'necessary suffering'!

OFFERINGS FROM DHYANAPEEETAM

List of Titles

The Formless in Form

A pictorial biography of Swamiji

The Gossip Of Nithyananda

A collection of Swamiji's most memorable quotes

A Small Story...

Swamiji's best-loved parables

The Many Moods of Swamiji

Swamiji captured on camera

From Pain to Bliss

Insights from Swamiji

From Worrying to Wondering

Insights from Swamiji

Question + Swamiji + Answer!

Your questions answered

The Simple Truth, Straightaway!

A public address by Swamiji

39

Is Spirituality relevant in our time?

A frank talk with the press

Om Mani Padme Hum

27 ways to approach the Master

Discovering Love

Insights from Swamiji

Open the door... let the breeze in!

Swamiji's guide to simple living & high thinking

Ananda Healing : Your shortcut to God!

An introduction to healing initiation

A Garland of Memories

Devotees' reminiscences of time spent with Swamiji

Voices of Gratitude

Testimonials about healing miracles

Nithyasmaram

A printed collection of devotional songs

Nithyananda : Oru Arimugam

Nandri! Nandri! Nandri!

When

you

understand

the

secret

of

the

flute

and

the

bamboo,

you

will

understand

the

secret

of

the

universe.

Paramahamsa

Nithyananda

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"In the wilderness that is Spirituality, always remember to carry a small torch of Doubt! Doubt is the journey, the path and the light."

Swami Nithyananda

Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-272-8

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