1. isbn 979-8-88572-801-0

Content: TRANSFORMATION TOOLS FOR INNER HEALTH VOLUME 6 THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

Content: TRANSFORMATION TOOLS FOR INNER HEALTH VOLUME 6

Content: TRANSFORMATION TOOLS FOR HEALTH - VOLUME 6

Content: Published by KAILASA's Nithyananda Hindu University | Copyright © 2021

Content: Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-801-01

Content: First Edition: 2021

Content: Nithyananda Hindu University

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Content: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Content: Nothing written, explained, shared or promoted in this publication should be considered or construed as medical advice or a substitute for medical care. Any instructions, teachings and suggestions contained in this publication are purely in a spiritual capacity and not intended to be any sort of guarantee or definitive statement about one's health or one's past, present, or future.

Content: This book is not a platform, guide or instruction for learning or practicing any meditation, siddhi, process, āsana, kriya, diet, or other technique that is described or pictured in this book. Any such technique included in this book is for illustrative and informative purposes only and should be practiced only under the guidance of a trained teacher Acharya, ordained by The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam.

Content: Copyright © 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved.

Content: Table of Contents

Content: Innocence regained opens many doors to life

Content: 1

Content: Remain empty

Content: 4

Content: Grasp with Innocence

Content: 8

Content: Be vulnerable

Content: 13

Content: Surrender with trust

Content: 16

Content: Drop cunningness and become spontaneous

Content: 22

Content: Innocence, totality, maturity

Content: 25

Content: Objective: To know what is innocence To remain empty - to unlearn and learn To drop cunningness and to become spontaneous

Content:

1. Innocence regained opens many doors to life

Content: It may seem strange to speak of innocence after talking about intensity, but in the truest sense, you cannot be intense in anything you do unless you are innocent of other agenda. The innocence I speak of may not be what your own dictionary defines as innocence. What I speak about is the innocence of a child. A child is intense about anything that it does. Adults have lost that power, but it can be regained.

Content: 1.1 What is Innocence?

Content: Constantly, we are asked to be good, to be pure, and to be innocent. The idea of innocence is forced upon us. Constantly we are taught by society, by moralists, that something is right, something is wrong, something is pure, something is impure, something is good, and something is bad, something is corrupted. Constantly we are taught the idea of good and bad. We are forced to practice something that is good or what society thinks is good.

Content: But life is no way related to what society believes in. Life is totally different. What society believes is different from what life is. There is a beautiful saying, 'When you think, you think in a generalized way. But when you live, you can't generalize.' This is like what they say in marketing, 'Think globally but act locally.' Situations can't be generalized.

Content: In your life there are so many things where generalization is not possible, where you can't decide what to do and what not to do based on popular guidelines. All your ideas about morality, about right and wrong, might not have any relevance practically. Somebody asked me, 'Swamiji, why do our ancient Hindu scriptures not speak of gambling? Only the epics speak about gambling.'

Content: I tell them that at that time there was no gambling, then how do you expect them to speak about gambling? Naturally no Hindu scripture bans gambling or drugs because at that time these problems did not exist. When it comes to morality it depends completely on the situation.

Content: Morality is relative, not existential. Innocence means purity of the inner space, not being affected by thoughts or engraved memories. Let you be very clear, even if you are not expressing your emotions like anger, greed and lust, if they are present in your inner space, you are not as yet a total and innocent person. Socially you may be pure, that's all. On the other hand if you express your anger, lust and greed but nothing touches your inner space and you live like an innocent child, then be very clear, you are a pure being.

Content: You can see children get angry. Children are greedy also. They build their personality mostly on greed. That is why they are so aware and conscious of 'mine' attitude. Try to take away a toy from a child. The child will behave as if his life is taken away. He will scream and shout. This is because his whole personality is built upon 'mine' attitude. Children have greed and anger, but you cannot call them impure. This is because whatever you may think as impurity does not affect their inner space.

Content: They will sit and play with their toys and after a few hours they will throw them and go away. They don't carry anything in them. Their inner space is beautiful and pure. You can't call them thieves even if they have stolen something because they don't have an idea that something belongs to someone and that you cannot take it from them. The idea that an object is someone's property does not exist in them. Innocence is purity.

Content: Knowing that an object is someone's property, even if you don't steal it but if you covet it some way, you have not become a thief as yet only because of the police, that's all. Innocence is directly related to the inner space. It is in no way related to the outer world. In the Shiva Sutras, Shiva gives us techniques to achieve this innocence. If you follow Shiva's life as is described in the Hindu mythological stories, you will not be able to see any social or traditional innocence in him. But there will be the pure and ultimate innocence. The place where he lives or the way in which he lives is not directly related to his purity or innocence. Shiva lives in a cemetery where bodies are cremated, surrounded by spirits and ghosts.

Content: The word Shiva in Sanskrit means causeless auspiciousness. This causeless auspiciousness, the energy to create bliss wherever he is, wherever he happens, arises out of his innocent inner space. In the vedic tradition, there are scriptural writings called Upanishads. The word Upanishad in Sanskrit refers to teachings of a master to his disciples as they sat with him. There are 108 such Upanishads.

Content: They are the essence of the enlightenment science handed down by the great masters of the vedic times. One of these, the Chandogya Upanishad1 describes a beautiful story:

Content: A boy by name Satyakama goes to a master seeking enlightenment. The master gives him four hundred cows telling him, 'Take these cows. Go live in the forest and look after them. When these multiply into a thousand cows bring them back to me.'

Content: Satyakama goes to the forest and lives with the cows, waiting for them to multiply. It takes many years for the cows to multiply to one thousand. For all those years he sits not talking to anybody, just being with the cows. Soon, he forgets the human language. In deep silence, not relating with any human being, he slowly loses his outer world identity. By the time one thousand cows happen, he forgets how to count. He simply sits waiting, with a beautiful feeling of ecstasy.

Content: Finally a cow comes to him and says, 'Sir, we have become one thousand now. We can go back to master.' He replies, 'Is that so? Alright.' Satyakama is in ecstasy. He has forgotten the way back. The cows lead the way. On the way back, animals, birds and even the fire that he kindles to cook his food instruct him on the nature of the Brahman2, the ultimate Truth.

Content: When Satyakama returns to the master, the master looks at him and smiles. He says, 'You look so radiant like the knower of the Truth, Satyakama. Who taught you?' Satyakama tells him how he had understood the Truth through animals and birds and requests the master to teach him the Truth in his own words. The master says, 'You already know the Truth,' and blesses him. The story says that just by being, just by listening to what nature has to say, Satyakama established himself in the Truth. He became enlightened.

Content: Total innocence leads to enlightenment. Satyakama asks the master for enlightenment and the master asks him to multiply cows! Many of you will ask, what do cows have to do with enlightenment? Fortunately Satyakama was not so intellectual. Fortunately he did not receive formal intellectual education. So he did not ask this question! He was simple, innocent and humble, ready for the transformation to happen. He had no logic to use.

Content: Understand, unless you are without logic, or tired of logic, you cannot be ready for the transformation. Logic cannot help you understand even your own life. Logic cannot help you look even into your own mind. How can it help you change? People ask me, 'Swamiji, why are you against logic?' I am not against logic. I am only telling you that all your suffering is because of logic without intelligence. Your logic creates so much politics inside you from morning till evening. What is politics? It is nothing but differing opinions on the same subject,

Content: 1 Chandogya Upanishad - One of the oldest and primary Upanishads or vedic scriptures.

Content: 2 Brahman - Absolute, Cosmic Consciousness, formless god etc, all referring to the universal energy source of which the individual energy of soul is a holographic part.

Content: is it not? Now watch your mind. It says one thing in the morning and a different thing in the evening on the same subject. This creates the dilemma in your mind. Your mind itself is such dilemma.

Content: People say that in all spiritual organizations there is so much politics. I ask them, 'What do you mean?' There is politics inside the very persons who make this statement! To create politics, you don't even need two people. One person is more than enough. One single person with logic is enough because in the morning his logic will say something and in the evening it will say something else! Naturally the fight between you and you is politics! Am I right? Then why are you making the statement that even spiritual organizations have politics? If you place the decisions that you make in the morning and the decisions that you make in the evening together in front of you, you will see a politician sitting inside you!

Content: Logic does not allow you to be simple and innocent. It does not allow the transformation to happen easily. Logic has to be overcome for the transformation to happen. Only when there is no logic there can be innocence. Innocence is the space for transformation to happen.

Content: In the case of Satyakama, fortunately he was not bitten by logic. The disciple goes to the master for enlightenment and the master tells him, 'Alright, take these cows, go to the forest and stay there till they become one thousand cows. Then come back!' If today's seeker was in that disciple's place he would have said, 'I think the master is trying to exploit me. He wants a thousand cows, which is why he is telling me to do this work. He is using me to get his work done.' Innocence is lost to logic!

Content: That is why no modern day seeker receives such amazing techniques. Understand, this is not a mere story. It has got a great truth behind it. With innocence, Satyakama simply followed what the master said. Further, he lost his logic of counting. He was completely lost in ecstasy and joy. The mind stopped functioning. He didn't care about one thousand or two thousand. Just the innocence and acceptance caused the greatest happening of enlightenment in him! When you completely accept, you don't need the mind. The mind is necessary only when you live with struggles, only when you are fighting. Just this moment accept yourself in the outer world and the inner world. You will go out enlightened.

Content: For so many years, completely accepting what the master said, Satyakama just was. What else can happen to him but enlightenment? You may think, 'How can simple acceptance do such a big job?' The problem is that even spiritual knowledge is approached by us with the space of an intellectual mind. It is from that intellectual space that we ask the 'how'. Intellect always questions. Innocence straightaway starts practicing what the master says. That is the difference.

Content: Shiva says in the Shiva Sutras, 'Absorb the ultimate truth, senses shut down, and be liberated.' Why is he using the words 'senses shut down'? How do you find out if you are completely lost in something? Your senses will not work! You will not see or hear! That is the way to find out. If your senses still work, you are still not lost.

Content: Shiva says, 'Absorb the ultimate truth, senses shut down, and be liberated.' 'When your senses are working you may think you are hearing, but you may not be actually listening. The sense organ may work, but not the energy that activates the sense organ. Hearing is different from listening. If you are only hearing then the intellect is still at play. If you are listening then you are lost. Then the intellect is no more. The click happens. You sit completely melting. You exclude everything except you and the master. You are utterly innocent and open like Satyakama. Then just one word from the master is enough and you become enlightened!

Content: He means that in that utterly innocent and open state, initiation is enlightenment. Just a word is enough to enlighten. Shiva is giving initiation itself as a technique. He says, 'Just listen while the master is expressing the truth, and become enlightened!'

Content: How can mere listening lead to enlightenment? Why did it happen to Satyakama when it is not happening to us? First thing, he was innocent and therefore intelligent to receive the master's instruction. Second, he was courageous enough to live with it. He had complete trust in the m a s t e r . Innocence always comes with trust. I am not asking you to get me a thousand cows. No! I am asking you to come with the same innocence. You don't have to do exactly what Satyakama did. But you have to be like Satyakama. If your being is like that, in this moment the transformation can happen. Just in this moment the transmission of light can happen.

Content: 2. Remain empty

Content: The word upanishad means 'sitting at the feet of the master'. In ancient India, there was the gurukul3 tradition of masters and disciples. Children were left with the master at the age of seven and they grew up centering beautifully in their consciousness. Masters are living embodiments of the scriptural truths. Their thoughts, words and deeds stem from the ultimate Truth. Disciples pick up the truth just by living around them.

Content: Swami Sri Yukteshwar Giri4, an enlightened master from India says, 'Sitting with the master is not merely being in his physical presence, but keeping him in your heart, being one with him in principle and tuning yourself to him.' This is the whole technique of upanishad. The master is superconscious energy. When you tune to him, you tune to that energy. You can tune only through innocence, openness. Openness is emptiness.

Content: Let not knowledge fill you. Knowledge is but a mere tool, not your substance. Reject all knowledge as 'not this', 'not this'. When I say reject, I mean don't settle for any intermediate knowledge except the ultimate Truth. Because when you drop everything that continuously arises in you, then you have no other go. You are thrown back into yourself and it is there you will find the ultimate Truth. It is then you are ready to be filled with the Truth. Then alone can you make upanishad happen.

Content: Adi Shankara, the great sage from ancient India, sang the beautiful Nirvana Shatakam5 when he was a mere eight year old: I have neither hatred nor liking, I have neither greed nor delusion,

Content: I have indeed neither pride nor jealousy, I have no duty to perform, Nor any wealth to acquire, I have no craving for pleasure, I am not being bound for liberation, I am all Auspiciousness, I am Shiva.

Content: Such was his blissful emptiness at that young age. If you watch children, their eyes will be filled with wonder and freshness all the time. They are so empty inside. They don't hold any opinion about anything. They are ready to receive. Their readiness is expressed in their eyes. Have you ever seen an adult with such eyes? The eyes lose their glow as we grow older because we become dulled by what we start knowing. Knowledge makes us dull. We may know many things, but the knowing should not dull us in any way. We should remain empty in spirit always.

Content: If you just look at life without any opinions, without any words of description, without any fixed ideas, then you are like an empty teacup into which the brewed tea can be poured. You receive because you hold nothing, because you are empty. Then you never lose your enthusiasm.

Content: 3 Gurukul - Vedic educational institution.

Content: 4 Swami Sri Yukteshwar Giri - Master of enlightened master Paramahamsa Yogananda from India.

Content: 5 Nirvana Shatakam - A collection of six verses sung by enlightened master Adi Shankara at the age of eight to introduce himself to his master , Govindapada.

Content: You are never bored. You are like a child, innocent and fresh. A young girl was writing something on a piece of paper. Her father asked her what it was. She said, 'I am writing a letter.' He asked, 'To whom?' 'To me,' she replied. 'What does the letter say?' He asked. She replied, 'How do I know? I have not mailed it and I have not received it yet.'

Content: There is so much freshness behind innocence. Life becomes an unfolding mystery every moment with it. That is the truth. Life is an ever unfolding mystery. It is the mind that typecasts it. The mind always wants life on its own specific terms. Innocence embraces life with life's own terms. With the mind, life does not find a gate to enter with its mysteries. With innocence, life is welcomed to share its mysteries.

Content: If you play hide and seek with children, you will see that they will hide in the same place as you hid the last time! Not just once but most of the time! How is this possible? It is because of one thing: they move with innocence.

Content: They don't have any idea in their head. They simply follow their heart. They have great trust in you, so they simply hide where you hid, not even suspecting you will look there! That is the beauty. In child psychology a simple experiment is conducted to determine the intellectual awareness of children. The child will be shown a doll house with dolls of father, mother, son and daughter.

Content: The counselor will take away the father and mother dolls and tell the child that they have left for work or shopping. The child will be asked to confirm the statement. Then the child is diverted to look elsewhere and the parent dolls are put back in the doll house where the child can see them. The child is now asked where the father and mother dolls are, and there are very interesting observations in the responses.

Content: A child of up to four years would normally respond saying that the mother and father are still away at work or shopping even though they can see them clearly in the doll house. It is only beyond that age, perhaps at the age of five, that the child connects what it sees with reality. Till then the child just believes what is told to it earlier.

Content: This is the beauty of innocence. Innocence trusts. Innocence does not worry about being exploited. Neuroscientists have explanations for this now. They say that till about the age of five or six, a child's brain wave patterns are in the theta and delta states.

Content: These are extremely impressionable states of mind in which we dream and sleep. These are states of no identity. Till the age of twelve they say that brain waves are in alpha state, still very impressionable. This is why children believe most of what adults say to them. In their innocence they trust.

Content: If you watch children's eyes, they will be clear and empty. This is why they are in bliss. As you grow up, your eyes become filled with knowledge. Then you may have sight, but not insight, because you see through your eyes that are already filled with opinions, judgments and beliefs. Your sight is no longer innocent. It is filtered and clouded. You see through the filter of your beliefs and conditioned memories.

Content: There is nothing new to learn from what you see because it becomes a repetition of your past memories. The learning is missed. On the other hand, when you see with empty eyes, everything you see goes deep and causes fresh insight. Life becomes an eternally unfolding mystery. The very nature of your questioning changes. The nature of the questioning reveals the depth of innocence of the questioner.

Content: There are three ways to ask a question. You can ask out of innocence, or you can ask out of knowledge to show that you too know, and third, you can ask to confirm that what you know is correct. When you ask out of innocence, you are completely ready to receive the answer. When you ask out of knowledge, you completely miss the answer. When you ask for confirmation, you simply resist the answer.

Content: A small story: Zen masters generally give personal guidance in a secluded room. No one enters when master and disciple are together. A Zen master used to enjoy talking with merchants and newspapermen as well as with his pupils everyday. Amongst his regular visitors was an illiterate potter who used to come and ask foolish questions of him. He will then have tea and go away.

Content: One day, while the potter was there, the master wanted to give personal guidance to a disciple, so he requested the potter to remain outside. The potter asked, 'I understand you are a living Buddha. Even the stone Buddhas never disallow the coming together of people before them. Why then should I be disallowed?' The master had to go outside to see his disciple.

Content: The potter's question was of knowledge. He missed the learning for the moment. Masters impart learning every moment. If there is implicit openness the learning can be received. In the space of innocence learning happens. The potter's knowledge came in the way of absorbing the master. Children absorb everything and everyone around them like a sponge. There is nothing hindering the process as yet. That is why they were taken to masters at the young age of seven in the ancient vedic tradition. The fundamental secret of learning is to function from a state of innocence.

Content: The problem is that those who are not empty never recognize that they are not empty. You cannot tell them they are full. They will neither understand nor accept it. But a man of innocence can say, 'Because of my knowing I missed it. I actually don't know. I am now eager to know.' The moment this space is created, the learning continues to happen. In this space there is no ego of knowing. The resistance is dropped and there is pure receptivity.

Content: J. Krishnamurti, the great philosopher, beautifully says, 'There can be freedom from know-ledge only when the motivation for gathering of knowledge is understood.'

Content: What is generally the motivation for knowledge? You see, the present is an unfolding miracle and mystery of Existence. We try to grasp it with the net of knowledge. That is the motivation for knowledge. But it can never happen! The unknown can never be trapped with the known. The unknown can be known only by surrendering to it. That surrender is what is called intelligence! Intelligence recognizes the mystery of the present moment and surrenders to it joyfully. That joy is the joy of innocence.

Content: Knowledge on the other hand denies the mystery of the present moment. It tries to ascertain it every minute and the present can never be ascertained. So you continuously remain with what is called 'fear of the unknown'. It is through the process of trying to ascertain the present moment that the fear of the unknown takes root. Otherwise, you have no fear! You are very clear that the present moment is a mystery!

Content: Through knowledge, you somehow try to escape from the 'not-knowing' of the moment. To the ego, not-knowing means being nothing. It cannot handle being nothing. But innocence is being nothing and enjoying the present! The present is an unopened gift. But knowledge robs it of its suspense. When knowledge understands that the ways of the Self are yet to be discovered, then it doesn't hinder the process of the ultimate knowing. Then it behaves as a tool that comes into play when actually required and not stand in the way of embracing the mysteries of life.

Content: When we understand that knowledge denies the mysteries of life, when we understand that we gather knowledge because we are afraid of the unknown, we will awaken to a new intelligence of surrendering to life, and that awakening is the birth of innocence.

Content: The problem is that society believes in instilling a set of beliefs into every child that is born. The whole method of bringing up a child is by instilling a set of beliefs in it.

Content: 2.1 What is belief?

Content: It is nothing but an individual and independent interpretation of something. There is no need to instill any belief into a child. A child can remain free to have its own interpretation. J. Krishnamurti says, 'Knowledge is both tradition and instinct.' What does he mean by that? Let us say you are born in a Hindu family. Then, the knowledge you pick up will be from a solid Hindu tradition. Your responses and your actions will carry the strong beliefs of Hindu tradition and ideology.

Content: Both at the conscious and unconscious levels, you will be conditioned through it. The unconscious response becomes your 'instinct'. The very experience of anything around you, happens only through instinct, not as it is. And because of this, you cannot know anything as it is. You can know it only through your knowledge. That is why we say, knowledge is a hindrance to knowing.

Content: Once knowledge solidifies in the being there is no space left for experiencing. There is scope only for replay of knowledge. Everything becomes a reflection of some past knowledge or some past conclusion. The future becomes a continuation of the past patterns and experiences. You already know the fragrance of a flower. You already know the sound of the waves. You already know the sunrise. In the very beginning, at the time of the first experience as a child, these would have been truly innocent experiences. But as we grow up, these innocent experiences start becoming mundane tradition.

Content: Understand, Existence is not a continuation of anything. It is fresh every minute. So it is not possible to know anything. What do you know of what happens the next second? If this is understood, all knowing can be dropped. Then there is only wisdom and wisdom is innocent intelligence. It allows the experience to happen without knowledge hindering. Then the great discoveries of the Self and that which is around the Self as well as the mysteries that link both happen.

Content: J. Krishnamurti rightly says that belief discards so many possibilities and urges you into one particular activity. Since the mind is constantly looking for activity you go behind belief. We base our whole life on beliefs. Because of this we are immersed in activity, but not action. Activity needs constant fuelling through beliefs. Activity cannot afford to stop. If it stops, the mind falls into depression. Action happens as and when required and stops. Activity happens out of belief. Action happens out of understanding. Activity causes fatigue while action creates energy and inspiration. What you need is action, not activity.

Content: Just understand that belief is nothing but your own understanding of something and not the truth. In any given situation, four different people can conclude differently with four different beliefs. There is no absolute reality in belief. It is merely an individual perception. But innocence keeps the perception open. That is the beauty of it. It doesn't conclude and close the doors on anything. Look at this picture here. What do you see? You see an old woman.

Content: But you can also see a young woman! The nose of the old woman is the left cheek of the young woman. The mouth of the old woman is the neck of the young woman's dress! The left eye of the old woman becomes the left ear of the young woman.

Content: There are innumerable interpretations to anything. Not holding onto any one interpretation is the essence of innocence. Then the spirit is kept alive.

Content: 2.2 Silence is the space of unlearning and learning

Content: Paramahamsa Yogananda6 says, 'Daytime is the devil's playground.' In daytime, we continuously feed our mind with words. Actually if you observe, words come in the way of learning. For example, now you are sitting in front of me. Many of you don't understand what I am saying because I am talking a foreign language to you. You feel sad. But you are the most fortunate in the group! It is not possible to learn from me through words. I talk only to make you silent. If I don't talk, you start talking inside you.

Content: So I talk. But you can learn a lot from me only through silence. In silence there is innocence. In words there is intellect. Intellect can never receive the truth, only innocence can. Just sit here with innocence, that is enough.

Content: Then you will receive the ultimate understanding. It is in the gaps between my words that the real teaching lies. The master is sheer poetry, the poetry of Existence. His expression is an overflowing of Existence. The master speaks because you want to hear. As he speaks there is a beautiful silence, which is his undercurrent. If you are open you can feel it touching you. Silence bridges the gap that words create. Silence is the space of transformation into fresh learning. In silence you are open and in those moments I can transform you easily. With the transformation, you regain your complete innocence.

Content: Communication is between two heads. With communication you can easily misinterpret me. However, communion is between two hearts. It is between two beings. With communication you work with your intellectual defenses. With communion you receive the direct initiation into the experience. With communion you fulfill the longing that you have for something beyond words. I have exactly that with me. That is what you need to take.

Content: The whole process of meditation is to start communing and find the silence within you. The inner silence can never be touched by thought or experience. Inner silence is the innocence that you seek. That is why people crave to sit by themselves in the Himalayas or in the forest. They hope to find the inner silence through the outer silence. When it happens you start communing with the whole of Existence.

Content: Anything that happens from this silence will always be in conformance with Existence. One disciple visited a Zen master in China. The master asked him, 'What do you seek?' The disciple replied, 'Enlightenment.' The master said, 'You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?' The disciple inquired, 'Where is my treasure house?' The master replied, 'What you are asking is your treasure house.' The disciple got enlightened that very moment.

Content: The inner silence is the treasure zone. Finding that for you is the work of the master. So next time, don't feel sad when you cannot understand what I am saying. Remain innocent and merge with the silence in the words. The unlearning and learning will then happen as they should.

Content: In that silence, there is no greed of heaven or fear of hell or jealousy of the other or want of love, or any worry. There is only resonance with innocence, with the master. The direct transmission then happens.

Content: 3. Grasp with Innocence

Content: Innocence is a delicate fragrance, while knowledge is a strong filter. That is the difference. The fragrance of innocence draws the whole world to you. The filter of knowledge prevents many things from coming to you. When you are caught in knowledge you are in a great hurry all the time, because there is too much knowledge to gather.

Content: When you are with innocence you simply enjoy the moment. If you watch innocent people, they will never appear to be with any great purpose. They will simply revel in the moment with a totality, with simplicity.

Content: 6 Paramahamsa Yogananda - An enlightened master from India well known for his book 'Autobiography of a Yogi'.

Content: Innocence grasps the moment while knowledge misses it. Knowledge knows only purpose while innocence knows the beauty of purposelessness.

Content: If you set aside your knowledge, you are ready to grasp the moment and the Truth. The present holds the truth in it. The problem is that today education teaches only knowledge and how to be clever. It doesn't educate on innocence. Where in the universities do they teach innocence?

Content: A small story:

Content: A young boy walked into a fish market and asked for six trout. The fishmonger enthusiastically started selecting the trout. He was about to wrap them when the boy said, 'Please don't wrap them up yet. Can you just throw each of them to me and I will catch them one by one before you wrap them up?' The fishmonger said, 'Of course I will, but what for?' The boy replied, 'That way, I can at least say when I get home that I caught six trout.'

Content: There is such a pressure to be clever today. Children lose their innocence to the conditioning that they receive in the name of 'how to be clever'. Over time, like this small boy, even innocence is used only to make up for cleverness!

Content: A father introduced his son proudly to his colleagues at office for the first time. All his colleagues were standing around the boy and the father said, 'Son, why don't you tell them how old you are?' The child promptly said, 'When I am at home I am seven. But when I am on a bus, I am five.'

Content: This is how children are trained today.

Content: They are trained to see utility in everything. Education evaluates you by your own utility. But you are not your utility. You are your being. The being can never be evaluated. Only the mind can be, and mind itself is a myth! Society creates a myth, which is your mind, and holds it as the yardstick to evaluate you. That is the reason why knowledge is so popular today.

Content: A small story:

Content: Four friends lived in a town. They spent a lot of time together. Three of them were very learned. The fourth was not as learned but he was wise. One day, they decided to travel to other lands to exhibit their learning to men and earn money. The fourth friend had nothing to boast of, but expressed his wish to accompany them. The first friend said, 'You don't know much. If you accompany us, we will have to unnecessarily share our money with you.' The second friend said, 'Yes, that is true. It is better you stay back.' The third friend was more kind. He said, 'We grew up together all these years. It is not right to tell him to stay back. He should come along.' So the four of them started their journey.

Content: They passed through a dense forest. They saw many wild animals and experienced many exciting moments. Suddenly one day, they came across a heap of animal bones. One of them said, 'I think this is a wonderful way to put our knowledge to test. Let us bring this animal back to life.' The two other friends agreed, but the fourth one said, 'I feel these are the bones of a very big animal, so we should not attempt to do such things.' The other three laughed at him and called him a coward. They said, 'If you had knowledge like we do, you will not feel so afraid of these things. Keep quiet and watch us.' The three proceeded with the experiment.

Content: One of them arranged the bones in a way that it looked like a proper animal. Then he chanted some verses, sprinkled holy water on it and the bones suddenly took the shape of a skeleton. They were amazed by the power of their knowledge. The second one came forward, chanted a few more verses and sprinkled more water on it. The skeleton suddenly got covered with muscles, flesh, blood and a coat of fur. It was a lion and lacked only life.

Content: The friends were amazed at themselves. The third friend came forward and said he would infuse life into it. The fourth friend gave another warning but they laughed at him. He then slowly climbed up a tree and sat there watching.

Content: The third friend waved life into the lion's body and the lion came to life. With one roar, the lion advanced towards the three of them. They looked up to see where the fourth friend was. He was perched up on the tree watching the whole scene. The lion made short work of them.

Content: Knowledge is a tool. It doesn't directly lead to intelligence. It is just a tool. As long as we use it as a powerful tool where needed, it is good. It can do amazing things. The istake we do is giving our whole lives to the hands of knowledge. On the other hand, innocence leads directly to pure intelligence.

Content: Another small story:

Content: There was a banyan tree in a small village that was giving cool shade. Under the tree there was a cow and a tired dog. There was also an old man with a long beard leaning his back on its trunk, his legs spread out in front of him.

Content: The tree was in the frontier between two kingdoms. A traveler was passing that way to cross from one kingdom to the other. He saw the old man and commented, 'Good disguise you are sporting. It doesn't work. I too sported a similar disguise when I stole a gold chain a few days back. A guard searched me and found the chain. He beat me up as well. Let us see how you are able to get away with your disguise.'

Content: Next came a man on horseback. He was a spy who was about to enter the kingdom. He stopped upon seeing the old man and thought to himself, 'Who knows with what motive this man is lying here? He could as well be a spy like me.' He hurried away as he had no time to lose with his job as a spy.

Content: One hour later, another man staggered towards the old man. He was drunk. He laughed at the old man and loudly asked, 'How much did you gulp down old man? Look at me. I have gulped an entire pot and I am still so steady although at times I feel my head is a little heavy.' Saying that, he went away. Soon it was nighttime and the whole place became very calm. A fourth man passed by that way and came across the old man. He looked at him for one long moment and went near him and bowed down. He spoke, 'How lucky I am. I have the good fortune of seeing you.' He then took a large leaf and fanned the old man to drive away the ants and other insects that were crawling up his body.

Content: The old hermit opened his eyes from his trance and saw the man fanning him and smiled. The young man asked, 'Oh great soul, I would be most blessed if you accept my invitation to spend the night at my house which is nearby here.' The hermit said, 'If that is god's will, so be it,' and followed the man to his house.

Content: Innocence grasps dimensions that cleverness misses. Innocence may miss the facts but it catches the Truths. Cleverness is too busy with facts. When cleverness combines with innocence, it becomes a rare combination of intelligence and innocence. Setting aside knowledge for the sake of innocence is intelligence. I don't mean that you have to stop gathering knowledge. Just understand that knowledge cannot substitute innocence.

Content: If you observe villagers who are not educated you will see that they exhibit pure intelligence! That is why you will find that when you are stuck, a villager effortlessly pitches in and helps you out! Innocent intelligence has that capacity.

Content: Comprehending complex things is not a difficult thing. You have to work your mind a little more, that's all! You only need to see in a more divisive way, in a more analytical way.

Content: For example, a person may not find it very difficult to understand aeronautics, but what about understanding the simple Zen koans7? Zen koans are simple teachings of Zen Buddhism. They are not concerned with where you are or what you do but with what makes you. They are meant to cause an awakening at the being level. They are concerned only with that, nothing else. They are not caught in giving ideas. They directly give the solution for the being. But they are difficult to grasp because they are too simple and straightforward!

Content: Today all universities work on sharpening the intellectual faculty of the individual. They teach us how to make ourselves more useful to society and how to be productive or effective. There is nothing wrong in being productive and effective, but in the process we forget how to be innocent and receptive. We forget how to open up to the cosmos, to Existence. We forget how to move in synchronicity with the cosmos, how to make productivity happen in tune with the cosmic plan, which is the source of all productivity. This happens because we are caught in ‘doing’ and ‘having’, we forget the ‘being’.

Content: Being, Doing and Having

Content: There are three important states: being, doing and having. Right now, we move from doing to having. We continuously ‘do’ things. We learn and we put the learning into useful action. We then ‘have’ what we want: money, relationships, comfort, and what not. Then we want to have better things or have more things and so we continue doing. We are all the time between doing and having. In the process, the being is forgotten. Our real restfulness lies only in the state of being. Because of this, however much we do and have, we still search for restfulness. This feeling is the ‘call of the being’. If we nurture the being and cause the doing to happen from the quality of the being, then we don’t have to work so much for the having. That will simply happen as a byproduct. This is the secret of Existence.

Content: But this is not seen as a direct utility to society by the universities. That is the problem. But this is what gives the real utility of every individual, not only to society but to the whole of the cosmos. We should always be concerned about the Whole.

Content: In the ancient Indian universities like Takshila8 and Nalanda9, the preparation of the students was always at the being level. Outer world learning happened as a natural consequence. India has always focused on nurturing the innocence of the being because only that will lead to strength of the being. When there is strength of the being, anything can be achieved.

Content: Paramahamsa Yogananda beautifully describes the intent of spiritual learning. He says, there are trillions of cells in the body. Every cell is like an intelligent being. Every cell has the DNA10 substance in it which has the information and intelligence to grow a whole new body and brain. This dormant intelligence needs to be awakened so that the mind doesn’t move towards suffering and remains in bliss.

Content: He goes on to say that spiritual education magnetizes the cells by sending life current around the brain and spine, ensuring evolutionary advancement of the individual. With this divine magnetism, every cell becomes a brain alive and ready to grasp every bit of knowledge. With these awakened brains, the mental capacity of the individual multiplies multifold and all sorts of knowledge will be effortlessly comprehended! Such is the impact of spiritual learning.

Content: 7 Koans - Riddles given as techniques in Zen to aid Self Realization.

Content: 8 Takshila - A center of learning mentioned in the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, now a world UN heritage site in North eastern Pakistan.

Content: 9 Nalanda - A great Buddhist center of learning in modern day Bihar, India comprising a university and library.

Content: 10 DNA - Deoxyribonucleic acid, the building block of all living beings containing the genetic code.

Content: Alexander, the emperor of Greece, had conquered three fourths of the world and traveled downward to Asia to conquer it. He settled down in the banks of the river Sindhu to conquerIndia. On the banks of the same river lived a hermit. As Alexander and his army passed by, the hermit was meditating and did not stand up to salute him. Alexander felt humiliated and shouted at him, 'How dare you do not salute me!' And he took out his sword to chop his head off. The hermit looked at him and laughed. Alexander was shocked. 'I am going to kill you and you are laughing!' He asked. The hermit said, 'I am wondering what you are trying to kill! I can never be killed. I am immortal, eternal and imperishable. Weapons cannot cut, fire cannot burn, water cannot wet, wind cannot dry up this soul.' He quoted from the Bhagavad Gita.

Content: Alexander dropped the sword and saluted the hermit saying, 'India has such great people who are fearless about death. I offer my salutations to this great country.' He retreated from the Indian soil a wiser man.

Content: The teachings of olden day universities created the possibility for supreme knowledge and confidence to flower in individuals, at the same time preserving their innocence. Then every student acquired the quality of a sage. A sage has the vast knowledge of the outer world and the utter innocence of the inner world.

Content: Buddha beautifully teaches in the Dhammapada11: Even the gods envy the saints, whose senses obey them like well-trained horses and who are free from pride. Patient like the earth, they stand like the threshold.

Content: They are pure like a lake without mud, and free from the cycle of birth and death. The sage is qualified to do anything in the outer world. In the ancient gurukul system of ducation, learning happened in a completely different plane. Creative intelligence stemmed from deep consciousness. Straightaway, the being was addressed and the doing and having had a different essence altogether. A small story:

Content: A young boy was considered to be very dull and his father one day took him to the Sanskrit school where all the boys of the village learnt their lessons. He met the teacher and said, 'My son is not a bright student. Will you allow him to sit in the back row of the class so that he is in the atmosphere presided over by goddess Saraswati12? I know you are kind and compassionate. Please guide him. He will be lucky if he learns anything.' The teacher readily agreed. The young boy joined the school. He would be present every day before any of the other boys came in, dust, sweep and mop the room, and set up the teacher's wooden table and chair and sit down in a corner to listen to the class most attentively.

Content: No one expected him to gain anything out of the classes. One day he humbly asked the teacher, 'Sir, what about the guidance you were supposed to give me? When will I receive it?' The teacher said, 'Right now! Here it is: Aham Brahmasmi (I am That). Recite this audibly or silently, but continuously.'

Content: With determination and inspiration the young boy learnt the phrase without even bothering to ask the meaning of it. Neither did the teacher bother to tell him the meaning. He did not feel thenecessity to do so. 'Aham Brahmasmi,' the boy went on repeating at home.

Content: His father asked him, 'Do you know the meaning of those words?' The boy's eyes bulged out. 'Meaning?' he asked. It never struck him that the words might have a meaning. The father told him, 'The words mean, I am That.' The boy went to his uncle's house the next day and continued reciting, 'Aham Brahmasmi, which means Father is Brahman13.' The uncle heard this and said, 'It doesn't mean that! It means: I am Brahman.'

Content: 11 Dhammapada - Teachings of Buddha in scriptural form.

Content: 12 Saraswati - Hindu goddess of learning.

Content: 13 Brahman - Absolute, Cosmic Consciousness, formless god etc all referring to the universal energy source of which the individual energy of soul is a holographic part.

Content: The boy was surprised but kept quiet. On the way back home he was reciting, 'Aham Brahmasmi, which means uncle is Brahman.' The village priest passed by him and heard him reciting. He stopped him and said, 'Son, it does not mean that uncle is Brahman, it means I am Brahman.' The boy was amazed. 'How can just two words mean so many things, father, uncle and the village priest are all Brahman!'

Content: His head was reeling and he sat down on a nearby slab of stone. He started reciting with the spirit of asking the words themselves what they really meant. The sun went down and darkness came. The stars and moon started shining. The boy went on reciting Aham Brahmasmi to find out its real meaning. At dawn, the ultimate knowledge dawned on him that he too was Brahman! Not just his father, uncle and village chief, but he too, and everybody else was Brahman. He became a realized soul.

Content: Understand, the moment the boy understood he was ignorant, an alchemy process was triggered in his system. When you don't know that you don't know, it is ignorance. When you know that you don't know, it is i n n o c e n c e . Then the knowing can s t a r t happening. But in the knowing, the feeling of knowledge is to be checked. Knowing is different from knowledge. Knowing is innocence. It is an understanding that has become your own experience. Knowledge that is not yet experienced is not your own.

Content: It is borrowed. It is just a collection of words in the head. A person may go on and on reading something here and there, and entertain himself. If his intention is just reading books it can be good entertainment, but not enlightenment. Entertainment is different from enlightenment. Just because he has been entertained by some good books, it doesn't mean that he is enlightened. Understand, the books which help you sharpen your logic give you the feeling that you know. There starts the problem.

Content: Work so that everything becomes a deep experience in you. You will then be a simple person. Simplicity is weightless. It will never weigh you down and hinder further learning. It will just aid in the flowering of innocence, that's all.

Content: What innocence grasps one may not even be able to express, because it is an understanding beyond words. But it can be seen in the eyes. The eyes are the windows of the soul. That is why when you see the eyes of sages you will see an oceanic look in them. They will radiate something that cannot be framed. To try to describe it would be like trying to scratch the foot from the outer side of the shoe.

Content: One cannot blame modernization for loss of innocence. Lord Krishna says, 'I am Time.' When Krishna says that, you need to understand that modernization is also the divine play of Existence. Man should understand modernization in the right light and not take it as a replacement to the ancient foundation of growing.

Content: 4. Be vulnerable

Content: When you are innocent, you are vulnerable to everything that Existence wants to teach you! If you are closed, you create a wall around you. The wall neither allows fresh breeze to touch your being nor does it allow you to step out and touch the cool breeze. Vulnerability is breaking the wall and inviting the cool breeze to touch your very being every time it blows.

Content: Vulnerability is allowing everything to touch your being. The entire cosmos comes to you when you are vulnerable. Vulnerability is not weakness. The wall when broken will not cause you danger.

Content: The wall itself was built out of a deep fear of exposing your reality. Your reality is your vulnerability and you are so afraid of opening it to the cosmos. You know deep down that if you let go and open up, you will simply be swept away in innocence.

Content: So you close yourself up. But it is suffocating to be in there because it is the same air that is circulating. You experience the same patterns that the mind knows. Then of what use is the wall? When the wall is broken, you will realize that nothing leaves you. Instead, you only gain one thing, freshness of life.

Content: Two astrologers met on the road on a beautiful autumn day. One of them commented, 'Beautiful autumn. It is something we have never seen earlier.' The other replied, 'True. I am reminded of the autumn of 2070.'

Content: When you are vulnerable, you experience everything at the being level. Otherwise, it becomes an experience through the head. The being is poetry, the head is prose. And poetry is life.

Content: One night a wife found her husband standing over their baby's crib. As he stood looking down upon the baby in the cradle, she saw his face assuming a mixture of emotions of disbelief, awe, skepticism, doubt, amazement and what not. She slowly went up to him, put her arm around him and said, 'A penny for your thoughts.' The husband replied, 'It's amazing. I can't imagine how anyone can make a crib like that for just 45 dollars!'

Content: With the head you cannot be vulnerable! When you are not vulnerable, you are sitting behind the great wall of your house. Life has not yet started. Life happens with vulnerability.

Content: With vulnerability you move towards the truth in a different path, in a joyful path because every moment you are receiving directly from Existence. Existence is able to give you because you are vulnerable and ready to receive it! Existence has its own ethics.

Content: Enlightened masters have their own ethics. When there is vulnerability, they can simply shower on you. When there is a wall, it becomes difficult. Their ethics does not permit them to penetrate. So they wait for the wall to break.

Content: When you become vulnerable, you are saying a 'yes' to Existence. Existence is the greatest mystery and the eternal teacher. When you say yes to it, your energy starts moving in a new direction. It moves from the head to the heart and you start receiving the teachings for your very being.

Content: Whatever you said 'no' to earlier will start becoming a 'yes'. Then you will see that the world is very different from what you thought. Once you start saying yes, you start expressing love, which is the language of the heart. Love can never be known through logic. It can be known by saying 'yes' to the other, by welcoming the other, not for any utility but for the sake of love.

Content: It can be known through a deep trust on the other. When you are vulnerable, you have great trust on the other. People ask me how to 'be' in my presence. Just be completely vulnerable and innocent. With openness, you can receive the truth directly in your being. The master is a pure expression of Existence. By allowing him, you are allowing Existence to enter into you. When Existence enters it leaves an impression of the truth in your being. With every darshan or touch from the master, the impression becomes deeper.

Content: This impression is greater than any teaching he can impart to you.

Content: Buddha's disciple once asked him, 'Master, you have not as yet answered our questions about whether the world is eternal or not, whether it is finite or infinite, whether the soul and body are the same or different.' Buddha looked at him and asked, 'Did I make any promise that I would be answering these questions?'

Content: The disciple said no. Then Buddha asked him, 'Suppose there is a man with an arrow in his chest, and when you are about to remove it for him, he says to wait saying unless he knows the caste of the man who shot the arrow, his height, weight, his family background, where he comes from, and what wood he made the bow out

Content: of, he will not allow you to remove the arrow, what would you think of him? face, 'He would be a fool, master. His questions have nothing to do with the arrow and he would die before the answers were revealed.' Buddha said, 'You are right. In the same way, I do not teach about whether the world is eternal or not, whether it is finite or infinite, whether the soul and body are the same or different. I teach straightaway to remove the arrow because the arrow is the root of your suffering, which is ignorance.'

Content: Understand, a master can't teach you spirituality, but you can learn by being open and trusting towards him. Spirituality has nothing to do with words. It is an experience. You need to imbibe it by watching the master's body language, by smelling the enlightenment that radiates from him. You can catch it if you are aware.

Content: If you are impatient with questions, the very questions prevent you from catching the truth. If you are patient and you catch the smell of enlightenment, the questions will dissolve. Then even before questions arise, the answers will happen in you. That is the great experience of being around a master. That is why masters take a body and come down from time to time, with the hope that a handful of disciples will catch the smell of enlightenment and awaken.

Content: When you are vulnerable, you are open in your entire response system. You give space for the intelligence of the cosmos to act through you.

Content: A small story:

Content: On the banks of a river there lived a sage in a small plot of land owned by a farmer. The village chief did not like the sage and wanted to buy the piece of land. The farmer would not let go of it.

Content: The village chief was ready to pay any amount of money.

Content: The farmer told him, 'If I sold the land to you, you will drive the sage away once it become yours.' The village chief angrily said, 'Why do you call him a saint? Just because he is wearing an orange robe? He must be as ordinary as you and I.'

Content: The farmer said, 'No Sir, I have seen many signs of a sage in him. For example, I have never seen him getting angry.' The village chief said, 'How can you conclude like that? He has probably not had a chance to exhibit his anger, that's all. Tomorrow come by his hut and I will show you how angry he can get.'

Content: The next day morning the farmer went near the sage's hut and watched. A boy apparently sent by the village chief approached the sage. The sage was writing something on a palm leaf with his head bent.

Content: The boy went behind him and spat on him.

Content: The sage looked back, saw that it was the boy who did it, got up and took a dip in the river and came back and sat. The boy spat again on him. The sage went and had a dip again and came and sat. The farmer could not bear to see what was happening. The village chief was standing behind a tree and watching as well. He was surprised at the sage's calmness.

Content: Every time the sage returned from the dip, the boy spat on him. Every time the sage smiled at him, got up and went and dipped. The boy had spat on the sage a h u n d r e d and seven times. By now, the boy's face was losing its color. He could not bear it anymore. He fell at the sage's feet and cried,

Content: 'Please forgive me. I have sinned. I harassed you in this manner only because I was paid to do so. I am afraid that you might curse me now!' The sage calmly asked him, 'So you will not spit on me again?' The boy replied, 'I would rather die than spit again.' The sage lifted him up and said, 'Let me tell you a secret. I should actually thank you for this because many years ago I had taken a vow that I would dip hundred and eight times in this sacred river. Today that has been fulfilled. I have to dip one more time to complete the vow. This time I will pray for you.'

Content: The sage dipped one more time and when he came out, the village chief was at his feet begging for forgiveness. He said, 'I am the real sinner: I paid the boy to do this. I wanted to prove that you would get angry.' The sage laughed and said, 'Had the boy told me his real mission, I would have got angry quickly and made him receive his reward!' The village chief became a disciple of the sage.

Content: The sage's response was neither for nor against. He simply remained open. Automatically the forces of the cosmos came together and fulfilled an old vow through the incident. I am not saying that you should allow someone to spit on you! Understand the importance of being open in your response. When you are open, you create tremendous space for the best to happen to you at that moment. Soon, you can reprogram your entire response system and thereby the very course of your life. A small Zen story:

Content: Zen teachers train their young pupils to express themselves and leave it at that. One child from a particular Zen temple would meet the child from another Zen temple every morning on his way to buy vegetables. One day, the first one asked the other, 'Where are you going?' 'I am going wherever my feet go,' responded the other. This reply puzzled the first one who went to his teacher for help. The teacher told him, 'Tomorrow morning, when you meet that fellow, ask him the same question. He will give you the same answer. Then you ask him, 'Suppose you have no feet, then where are you going?' That will fix him.' The child met the other the next day morning. He asked, 'Where are you going?'

Content: The other one replied, 'I am going wherever the wind blows.' The first one was baffled and went to his teacher again. The teacher said, 'Tomorrow, you ask him where he will go if there is no wind.' The next day the child met the other one on the road and asked, 'Where are you going?' The second one replied, 'I am going to the market to buy vegetables.'

Content: To just express with vulnerability is to be free like a bird, not worried about any past or future, to just be. That is what Zen masters taught their disciples.

Content: 5. Surrender with trust

Content: Immense trust leads to surrender. Surrender is simplicity of the heart. It is the knowing that you do not have to decide about the Truth, that you just have to go by it. When you awaken to the powerful presence of the Truth, surrender happens.

Content: If you observe your pet dog, you will find that even if you cheat him once in a while, he will come back to you with utmost trust. His trust is absolute and innocent. The trust comes with no reason. He has no questions, so no answers need to be given. He sees no utility in anything. He just exists like an open book, that's all.

Content: Two gold fish were in a water tank. One asked the other, 'Do you trust in god?' The other replied, 'But of course. Who do you think changes our water everyday?'

Content: It is only innocence that is capable of taking the leap into trust and surrender.

Content: Knowledge somehow sees utility in everything. It looks for reason in everything. Surrender and reason are mutually exclusive. Surrender is to do with trust. Surrender is possible only out of innocence, because out of innocence arises trust.

Content: With trust arises acceptance as well. Acceptance does not mean compromising to life, situations and persons. No. It means welcoming life and all its forms as a wonderful gift from Existence. Each person or situation is a fresh happening. Accepting it at a deep level is surrender. People and situations have to be handled with the required tact. But the spontaneous and deep acceptance of the moment is surrender.

Content: Acceptance is the deep humility towards the profound Existence that takes care of everything including you. It is again saying 'yes' to Existence. When you say yes, you are acknowledging the presence of the all pervading life force that is conducting this universe. That is surrender.

Content: Out of surrender arises deep relaxation. Out of surrender arises a fresh intelligence that knows on a different plane. On this plane, there is no worry of result, there is only action driven by pure energy. And energy is intelligence. Trust does not mean inaction. It means continuing to be in action with intelligence instead of intellect. It is having trust in thought, and intelligence in action.

Content: A disciple came riding on his camel to the tent of a Sufi master. He dismounted from the camel, walked into the master's tent, bowed down low and said, 'Master, so great is my trust in god that I have left my camel outside untied, convinced that god protects the interests of those who love him.' The master shouted, 'Go tie your camel you fool! God cannot be bothered doing for you what you are perfectly capable of doing yourself!'

Content: Trust is an attitude. It is not a substitute for appropriate action. The spirit of trust is the essence of the very life. It leads to innocence, surrender, relaxation and bliss.

Content: If it is followed out of complete understanding, there is nothing to lose in its path. Until then, you are still on the path to trust. All great enlightened beings are eternally blissful because they have surrendered their very body to Existence with trust. Existence flows through them like air flowing through hollow bamboo creating music. That is why they are so beautiful.

Content: When Existence flows through, the expression is divine. Enlightened master's grace is the grace of the whole of Existence. They are the only utterly innocent beings on planet earth. Enlightened masters are established in the knowing that nothing is impossible in the space of Existence. They are living embodiments of trust. Their bliss is an expression of this. They have access to all the knowledge of the world but are yet utterly innocent. They know that theirs knowledge is the knowledge of Existence. Their knowledge is not knowledge but a flowing experience of the truth of the moment.

Content: We too have knowledge. But the problem is that we think our knowledge is the only right knowledge and all other knowledge is wrong. Understand, the ultimate knowledge is the same for everyone.

Content: Anything in between is just a bunch of borrowed ideas. If this is known clearly, surrender will happen and we will drop the burden of knowledge and become innocent. How to start knowing that we don't know? Mere clarity that we don't know is enough. Just meditate on Existence, the source of all knowledge. Be in a prayerful and surrendering mood to it all the time. Be firm in surrendering to the knowledge of Existence. You will see that miracles start happening around you.

Content: There is a story about Hanuman14, the monkey god in Hindu mythology who was a devout disciple of lord Rama15. Hanuman was once asked what day of the lunar month it was. He replied, 'I don't know anything about the day of the month or the positions of the stars. I think of Rama alone.'

Content: When you are established in the wonder of the Truth, you become so innocent, that your very life becomes meditative and miraculous. It was Hanuman who crossed the ocean from India to Sri Lanka with just one leap by chanting the name of Rama. Rama himself had to build a bridge to cross over with his army! Such is the power of innocent surrender to Existence and all its forms.

Content: When one is established in surrender to the Divine, miracles happen every moment. People are always in search of miracles. The biggest miracles happen with surrender. There is a wonderful story from the life of Shirdi Sai Baba, a great enlightened master from India.

Content: In the mosque, Shirdi Baba16 used to light the lamps everyday. He used to light them ymbolically for the destruction of the darkness of ignorance in humanity. But people would think that he loved lighting the lamps. Baba used to get the oil from the oil merchants. After some time, the oil merchants decided that they would not part with the oil free of cost. They all got together and decided not to give Baba oil any more.

Content: Baba though aware of this decision, pretended not to know about it and went the following day to get the oil. The merchants refused to give him oil. Baba returned to the mosque smiling. The villagers and the oil merchants however got curious as to how he would light the lamps. They gathered around him.

Content: Baba filled the lamps with water and lit the wicks. They burnt with more brightness than usual emitting radiance of a different plane! The oil merchants were amazed and shocked. They begged for forgiveness, and of course Baba forgave them.

Content: Surrender is allowing Existence to happen through you. Enlightened beings enjoy the play of Existence through them. They enjoy it with the utter innocence and awe of a child. That is why they are so delightful to watch.

Content: One more thing: when you are trusting and surrendering, it becomes difficult to cheat you. Innocent trust always protects from deceit. It radiates that kind of energy. In our ashram, people from all walks of life come together to live. Once they enter the ashram they develop a sense of deep trust.

Content: The very decision to take the jump from the material world to the spiritual world as an ashramite17 comes from trust. Further, when they enter the ashram and start living, sharing their things with other seekers, there is such trust that no one cares to keep anything under lock and key! The room may be filled with strangers but still there is no thought to keep one's possessions locked. Nothing gets lost. Even if something cannot be found, the very attitude is such that it doesn't matter to them! That is the beauty of it.

Content: There was a great Sufi Saint by name Habib Ajami. He went to bathe in the river one day leaving his coat on the bank of the river unattended. One man passed by at that time and saw the coat. Thinking someone had left it there carelessly and it had to be protected, he decided to stand guard over it till the owner came by.

Content: 14 Hanuman - The monkey god revered by Hindus and a disciple of Rama.

Content: 15 Rama - Prince of the kingdom of Ayodhya in the Hindu epic Ramayana

Content: 16 Shirdi Sai Baba - An enlightened master worshipped by Hindus and Muslims alike. Lived in Shirdi near Nasik, India.

Content: 17 Ashramite - Resident of ashram.

Content: Habib came back looking for his coat. The man asked him, 'In whose care did you leave the coat when you went to bathe?' It might as well been stolen!' Habib replied, 'I left it in the care of Him who gave you the task of guarding over it!'

Content: When trust happens with the utmost understanding, nothing can be lost. In the quality of trust is its true essence. I always tell my disciples about the monks I have seen in the Himalayas during my spiritual wandering days. The monks come to the Himalayas to meditate leaving everything behind. But there they fight for their small water pots! Just the object of possessiveness changes, that's all! When you trust, all material possessions will seem like they belong to Existence. The very attitude of possessing then drops. That relaxes the mind. That is the space for relaxing.

Content: In the year 2004, we went as a small group to the Himalayas. In a lifetime at least once you should visit the Himalayas. We went to Gomukh18, which is the source of the sacred river Ganga. The trek is on mule back taking almost five hours up and five hours down. The path is just four feet wide.

Content: If you miss your footing you will go into the gushing Ganga river beneath! Once we reached Gomukh we spent some time there, and the group returned while I stayed back with a few disciples. The group that returned started at dusk. I told them not to worry and that Existence will take care.

Content: Through pitch darkness, not knowing if the mule was taking the bend of the mountain or going straight ahead into the darkness, the entire group made its way back. The next day, I asked them how the experience was. One of them said, 'Swamiji, we experienced what blind trust means!' If those trusting moments could be extended, they can be the very essence of your life. Then, you can simply do, leaving the result to Existence. Just seeing the Himalayan Mountains can help trust and surrender take root in you. The mountains straightway tell you that Existence is mightier than the intellect!

Content: They tell you that intellect cannot fathom their majesty. When this truth happens, the struggle ceases. The mind stops. If you wander in the Himalayas for some time you can experience that bliss is not a goal at all but the path itself. You realize that bliss is in the moment and not in any goal. When you come to the present moment you are open and innocent because there is no mind in the present. For the mind to exist there has to be movement towards the past or the future. In the present moment, there is no past or future. It is just there, that's all.

Content: To be trusting and surrendering is like losing the 'I' and the 'mine'. Ego starts with 'mine' and then moves to 'I'. Even before the identity of 'I' sets in, the 'mine' comes into play. If you notice a small child, even before the 'I' takes root in him, he will fight for 'mine'. Just try pulling a toy from his hand. He will resist! It is his, you cannot take it away. Even before he talks 'I', he will talk 'mine'. Surrender is nothing but merging with Existence, with no identity of 'I' or 'mine'. Surrender is death of the mind, death of ego. Ego is nothing but feeling yourself to be a separate entity from Existence. This feeling happens as a result of a strong 'I' and 'mine'.

Content: The mind is a direct conflict to the being. The being always concurs with Existence. The mind invariably comes in the way. The being knows. The mind doubts. The being always says yes. The mind mostly says no.

Content: The being is innocent but the mind is cunning. Saying yes is like death for the mind. So it continues to say no. With persuasion it says yes. If left to itself, it says no. Now you will ask, 'How to silence the mind?' You cannot silence the mind through the mind. It is like expecting the suspect to surrender! It will never happen. You just need to understand that the mind is not a reality. It is a just a myth. You are holding on to something

Content: 18 Gomukh - Source of sacred river Ganga in India.

Content: unreal and trying to silence it. If you bring awareness to this process that is going on within you, you will be able to see where the mind is saying no. Then you will be able to put it to rest so that the yes of the being is heard. Awareness is the key to anything. Just bring in awareness. The resistance of the mind will then drop. You will then relax into the being. Innocence starts expressing from there.

Content: Unless innocence happens intimacy cannot happen. Intimacy is the language of Existence. The mind doesn't know intimacy. Only the being knows it. With intimacy there is openness and you can say and do everything that you feel genuinely and earnestly about. There will be authenticity in your words and actions. You will radiate energy that spurs the others around you to be innocent and open. Then the real beauty of Existence can be experienced.

Content: 6. Spirituality - the way to innocent obeisance

Content: There is a famous saying, 'If you worry, then you didn't pray. If you prayed, then don't worry.' Spirituality is a straight path to surrender worry and be free. It is a tremendous relief for the modern day man. It is a proven science. In today's world of science and knowledge, the call of the being needs to be addressed compassionately and immediately. Spirituality is the way.

Content: Spirituality restores the cosmos with its sanctity and mysticism. It reminds man that he is not the greatest creature on the planet. It reminds him of the powerful Existential energy that pervades the universe. It creates not-knowing and innocent surrender in the mind.

Content: Spirituality is not a ritual. It is the science of merging with Existence. From time immemorial, the first thing that all world religions did was to create a space for the Divine to become a part of life. A temple is a space to reconnect with the cosmic energy and be restful in it. That is the core purpose of all world religions. When the connection deepens, it becomes a blissful space within oneself. Religion is a clear stepping stone to spirituality.

Content: From time immemorial, from the time humans lived together in tribes or groups, they have allotted different areas in their living place for different purposes. Almost in all cultures these groups created special places that they used only for worship.

Content: Researchers have discovered that even animals do the same thing. They keep aside a space where they do nothing but rest. They do not use this space for any other activity. Of course, they don't know anything called worship or prayer. That is the reason they use it only for rest. If they knew they would have used it for worship.

Content: That space was to reconnect and relax in the lap of Existence. What man might miss because of the pace of his life, animals do naturally and meticulously! If you look into the eyes of animals, you can see deep innocence because they live in deep surrender to Existence.

Content: When man pursues science alone, he becomes too knowing because his inventions and discoveries seem to be his own findings. Everything seems to fall under the purview of his intellect. Spirituality on the other hand keeps the mystery of the cosmos alive. It creates humble obeisance towards a life force that is mightier than the intellect. That is why spirituality can restore innocence. There is an immediate need to pay obeisance to the cosmic force and calm the intellect.

Content: With obeisance comes fresh intelligence that sees the cosmic consciousness as the central core of activity. Then, man will no more be afraid of the unfathomable cosmos. He will simply fall in tune with it with deep devotion, love and in ecstasy. The greatest saints of India who had the power of willing the cosmos to lovingly respond achieved this power through spirituality.

Content: There was a man by name Muruganar who was an ardent devotee of Shiva. Everyday before break of dawn he would bathe in the cool waters of the river, gather flowers from trees, fields, the river and creepers and make garlands for the Shiva deity in the temple.

Content: He would walk to the temple every day taking care while walking not to disturb the flowers in their setting in the garland! After offering them to the deity he would chant sacred verses for long hours.

Content: It is said that he attained enlightenment through just this innocent worship. Today he is worshipped as one of the 63 saints called Nayanmars19 who attained enlightenment through innocent devotion to god.

Content: Those who shun spirituality are those who have not tasted its transforming sweetness.

Content: They are the ones who think spirituality is seriousness. No! God is always an embodiment of bliss, then how can spirituality be seriousness? Man has made it serious by reducing it to mundane rituals.

Content: Our masters have even specified the times in which to connect to the deeper realms of our being through prayer. They have said it is good to pray in the early morning. What is the reason for this? The intellect has rested well in the night and has not as yet started functioning in the morning. When spirituality is practiced at that time, the impact on the mind is greater. The impact is made while the mind is still fresh and innocent, while the mind has not yet started chewing on the intellect. Not for nothing have the great masters gifted spirituality to us. When the intent is understood, spirituality becomes a straight route to restoring innocence and trust.

Content: A small story:

Content: One evening, a farmer on his way back from the market found himself without his prayer book. The wheel of his cart came off right in the middle of the woods and he felt sad that the day should pass without having said his prayers.

Content: So he made up a prayer for god. He spoke aloud, 'Oh god, I have done something very foolish. I have left behind my prayer books today. And my memory is so poor that I can't recite a single prayer without the book. So this is what I am going to do. I will recite the letters of the alphabet five times very slowly and you, who knows all the prayers, please put the letters together to form the prayers I can't remember.' And god said to his angels that day, 'Of all the prayers I have heard today, this one was undoubtedly the best because it came from a heart that was simple and sincere.'

Content: Spirituality is an opening to express innocence in its purest form. Innocence itself is an offering to god. Innocence itself is the greatest prayer to god. Religion is by itself not any belief as it is made out to be. Every religion is the result of the deep spiritual experience of the great master who founded it. What they experienced, they gave as a religion to humanity, through which humanity can get the same experience. There was no other intent. If this is understood, any person can practice any religion. That is the beauty of all original religions.

Content: The same is true when you are around a master. Be in a mood of innocent surrender. When you are innocent and prayerful, the master's silence penetrates your being. The religion of silence is the greatest religion. It is the religion of the great masters and disciples. That is true spirituality also.

Content: 19 Nayanmars - Tamil devotee saints of enlightened master Shiva, 63 in number, whose life stories are told in the book Periya Puranam.

Content: Spirituality when practiced out of innocence keeps you childlike. If you see the Tanjore20 art paintings depicting themes from the Hindu epics, you will see that the faces of the men, women, sages and gods in the painting are always young and innocent. The reason is that true spirituality keeps the essence of life young because it deals with the 'feeling', not with the 'knowing'. When you are with the heart you remain fresh and young all the time. With spirituality comes deep devotion to the Whole. It is devotion from the being.

Content: Devotion is an outpouring that removes all your defenses and makes you vulnerable for Existence to enter you. There are enchanting stories of the great devotees of Hindu mythology who made miracles happen through sheer devotion.

Content: Such is the depth of innocent worship. The innocent worshipper continues to be prayerful even after the worship is over. The prayer is an expression of the humble innocence and gratitude towards the Whole, so it knows no reason. It just continues.

Content: 7. Drop cunningness and become spontaneous

Content: When I told the story of Satyakama to a group of people, one person asked me, 'Maybe these techniques are for highly evolved souls. In that story, the disciple gets enlightened when the master just blesses him. He must have been a highly evolved soul for that to happen.'

Content: I told that person, 'No, it is not for highly evolved souls. It is for highly innocent souls!' Understand this. Highly evolved people don't need techniques. It is like how I was telling you the other day. In sage Patanjali's teaching of Ashtanga yoga21, the eight techniques described are to be practiced all at once. It is not that if you finish the first technique you are one step higher and ready for the second one. No! Even the first technique is so strong that if you are able to master it and move to the second, you don't even need the second because you are already done! The first step is yama, which is about codes of behavior.

Content: If you are able to master this alone, then you don't need the remaining steps. You don't need any further yoga or breath control! So understand this. All eight techniques are individually fulfilling techniques for the sincere seeker. They are not sequential steps.

Content: Similarly, techniques such as those given to Satyakama are given to innocent people who are tired of being cunning. Understand these words, 'tired of being cunning'. What is cunningness? It is the opposite of intelligence. You can be either cunning or intelligent, never both at the same time.

Content: Cunningness is also the opposite of vulnerability. When you are cunning, you cannot be vulnerable. When you are vulnerable, you are pure like a child. A child can be intelligent and innocent at the same time. Over time, his intelligence grows but the innocence invariably takes a turn to become cunningness. Then he is no more pure like a child. Societal conditioning causes the innocence in the intelligence to take the turn into cunningness. Children if left to themselves remain innocent. But we teach them so many things that they become social animals. We hold a great responsibility in bringing up children without making them cunning.

Content: The poet Khalil Gibran22 says beautifully about children:

Content: 20 Tanjore art paintings - Devotional paintings from South India that use semi- precious stones and gold as adornment.

Content: 21 Ashtanga yoga - Eight limbs or paths of Patanjali's Yoga: yama (discipline), niyama (rules), asana (body postures), pranayama (breath control), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (bliss).

Content: 22 Khalil Gibran - Lebanese American poet best known for his 'The Prophet'.

Content: You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

Content: You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Content: Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Content: The problem is that we know only to divide and look. We never know to look as a whole. If you watch a baby, it will look at each of its toys as a whole. It will just try to push it in as a whole into its mouth! Sometimes it will push the larger part of the toy first into the mouth where it won't even fit. It doesn't know what toy it is or what its parts are or whether it is appropriate to put it into its mouth. Its eyes know only to see as whole, never divided. The moment you teach the child to divide and look, you sow cunningness in him.

Content: Cunningness is division. It is a constant calculation. It hinders free and innocent expression. It knows to express only through calculation. Calculation is alright for arithmetic, not for the being. We calculate for the wrong reasons. Do we ever calculate our blessings? No, never! They are just taken for granted.

Content: Cunningness starts with division of the whole. Innocence is lost when the mind is taught to divide. Once it picks up the thread, the mind continues and moves far away from its original innocence.

Content: Two babies were in a pram next to each other in a mall. One of them turned to the other and asked, 'Are you a girl or a boy?' 'I don't know,' the baby replied. The first one said, 'I can tell.' And he dived beneath the clothes and came out and said, 'You are a girl and I am a boy.' The baby girl was surprised and asked, 'How did you know?' Pat came the reply, 'That's easy. You are wearing pink booties and I am wearing blue ones!'

Content: From a very early stage, the child is taught division by people who are themselves struggling with cunningness. The child unconsciously trades his innocence for cunningness.

Content: The danger with cunningness is that it grows roots in many directions and solidifies as the very nature of the individual. The person will not even know he is cunning. He won't even know that his struggle with himself is because of his cunningness.

Content: One person came to me and started telling me, 'Swamiji, I have extramarital relationships.' I asked, 'Do you feel it is wrong?' He said, 'Yes, I know it is wrong, and I am very clear that I am doing something wrong.' I told him, 'Then stop it.' He said,

Content: 'No, only you can stop it.' I told him, 'Hey, I am not the one having the relationship to stop! You are the one having it, so it is you who is supposed to decide and stop!' He stood silent. I asked him, 'What do you mean by I should stop?

Content: Do you mean that I should take your car keys and not allow you to go there? What do you mean by I should stop?' This is cunningness. He told me, 'No, I have surrendered myself to you, so you should take care of it.' I told him it was a good story!

Content: Then I told him, 'You told just now you have surrendered everything to me. Alright then, just sit here and meditate.' He asked, 'What are you saying Swamiji?' I told him, 'You were the one who said just now that you have surrendered everything to me! Then just do whatever I say. Don't move from here, just sit.' That he was not ready to do!

Content: If you are not ready for the simple solution, then be assured that you are playing a cunning game! Unless you are tired of being cunning, you can't be helped. No technique can help you because your cunningness knows how to escape from every single technique. People come and tell me, 'Whatever you are saying is correct, but...' Understand this. The moment you say 'but' to me, you have missed! The moment you say 'but', it is over. You are trying to escape with your cunningness.

Content: Some people tell me, 'Whatever you say is right, but please make me do whatever you say.' What do you mean? Should I have two or three people continuously watch you and make you do things? Drop your cunning game, then automatically you will start doing what I say. Cunningness is a pure hide and seek game that you play with yourself. You can't play it with me. I straightaway know where all you are hiding. I don't need to come to you to find you. So understand that you are just playing with yourself. Just take a strong decision to be completely sincere and authentic to yourself. Only then you can drop your cunningness.

Content: When cunningness dissolves, authenticity and sincerity happen and you will enlighten quickly. Also, with authenticity you will not indulge in any kind of gossip. Gossip is a pure expression of cunningness. When you are so cunning that you can't tell a person anything on his face, you talk behind his back.

Content: When I tell people that they need to become tired of cunningness to come out of it, they ask me, 'How come I know and yet I don't know? How come I can't stop being cunning?' You can't stop because you are secretly nurturing it. It is your creation. You never miss a chance to nurture it. That is why you pretend that you want to stop and you urge me to stop it for you.

Content: You can wake up a sleeping person but you can't wake up a person who is pretending to sleep. Until you are only pretending to sleep, you will never find the burning need to wake up. Straightaway stop cooperating with it, that's all. That is the only way and it is so straightforward. When you know fire burns, will you beg me to stop you from touching it? No! Then when you know you are cunning, why can't you just drop it? When you drop cunningness, spontaneity flowers.

Content: Spontaneity is the opposite of calculation. Intelligence plus innocence is spontaneity. Intelligence plus cunningness is calculation. Spontaneity is nothing but a flowing expression of your innocence. It is a non-calculating state of mind. It is called sahaja23, being yourself without any burden. The burden is the burden of constant calculation.

Content: Understand this, with cunningness, you may think you are gaining a lot of things, but the truth is that you are losing your innocence. Losing your innocence is like losing your entire life. You can afford to lose anything but not your innocence.

Content: With cunningness you miss your state of sahaja, the spontaneity that is your own. In being cunning you are constantly trying to be someone else. When you pretend to be someone else you are not only cheating yourself but you are also in danger of missing your own fragrance. Like all other creations of Existence you have your own beautiful fragrance. It is the fragrance of sahaja, your natural spontaneous state that is unique to you.

Content: 23 Sahaja - Spontaneous divine joy.

Content: When you are spontaneous, you are without any conclusions. There is no need to function out of conclusion all the time. Intelligence is fluid and creative. It is of the present moment. Conclusion is a foregone thing. It is of the past. With conclusion the juice of spontaneity is lost.

Content: Society has taught us to be with conclusions all the time. There are some standard conclusions, which we quickly try to fit with anything that we see. We are afraid to drop our conclusions and be open because the mind is always comfortable in repeating patterns. It finds security in it.

Content: Existence never repeats patterns. Every day is different. Every night is different. Can anyone say it is the same day or same night? No. It is an event that happens everyday and yet it is never the same. That is the sheer beauty of Existence. Then why should we look for patterns? There is no need. The very joy of spontaneous living can be very well experienced. Children are open and spontaneous till the age of seven.

Content: Then society starts creating an impression on them.

Content: A woman stopped and asked the little boy who was smoking on the street, 'Son, does your mother know that you smoke on the road?' The boy looked at her and asked, 'Does your husband know that you stop and talk to strange young men on the road?'

Content: Children are like this! They don't bother. They are just spontaneous. A teacher asked in the class, 'What is a comet?' 'One boy stood up and said, 'A star with a tail.' The teacher asked, 'Can you name one?' The boy replied, 'Mickey mouse.'

Content: Children are not afraid. They just express, that's all! No one can predict what the child is going to say the next moment. That is his specialty! The problem is that we are ready to handle spontaneity with children, but we are not ready to handle it with grownups. With a child, we mentally give him the space because we accept he is from a different plane. But with adults we perceive them as being in the same plane as us and so we cannot tolerate it.

Content: Children get away with so many things like even hitting you. You actually enjoy it! Can you imagine feeling like this if an adult hits you? The innocence of the child makes even the act of hitting beautiful. The innocent energy of a child is completely behind his action. In an adult, his mind is behind the action. That is the difference.

Content: 8. Innocence, totality, maturity

Content: The Dhammapada24 says:

Content: Light the lamp within; strive hard to attain wisdom. Become pure and innocent, and live in the world of light. When you came into the world, you came as an innocent infant. You radiated the beauty of your innocence until society gave you the mind. Now, you want to get rid of your mind and become innocent again. The regained innocence is what is called maturity. It is possible to regain it. Just believe that you were innocent once upon a time. Trust that the innocence is still within you. Then it is possible to start radiating it again. This understanding will start the process again. Maturity causes us to live in totality.

Content: Totality is functioning out of immense innocence and giving your whole to the moment. There is no opinion, no judgment, no fragments within you. There is only intense enthusiasm for the moment. The openness to the moment is the innocence. Just one thing is needed to become innocent once again. Don't hide behind false

Content: 24 Dhammapada - Teachings of Buddha in scriptural form.

Content: knowledge. See where all you are hiding and step out to reveal your natural self. Then you are completely open. This is the attitude for enlightenment.

Content: Knowing that you are hiding is the first step. Taking a strong decision to come out of it is the next step. Then you will see that innocence and maturity start happening.

Content: To become mature you need to go in first, because maturity is all about falling at ease with your true nature with no pretensions.

Content: Making your natural self to be your very nature is maturity. The best way to become your natural self is to keep your core at ease. Let the core of you be at ease all the time, irrespective of where you might be or what you may be doing. Then you can retain your purity. Always feel your natural self at your core with no strain, with no effort or pretensions.

Content: The problem of falsity comes because society teaches you to be someone special all the time. There is no need to be someone special all the time. It is an immature idea to be someone special all the time. Once this idea is renounced, the mind relaxes. It feels no pressure to be shrewd. This relaxation gives birth to innocence.

Content: Right now, you are struggling for innocence because you are unable to pacify your mind. If you cooperate with the understanding that your mind is hindering your regaining of innocence, the struggle is over. On the other hand, if you resist the understanding, then you struggle. The struggle is with your ego. The ego resists any understanding that shakes it.

Content: When you drop the mind, you fall into the moment. To harbour the mind you need to travel either in the past or in the future. A child is always in the present. He doesn’t care to retain any past in his memory. It is of no use to him. He is interested in enjoying the moment. There is no need to hold on to the past. When we remember anything, we don’t remember days, we remember only moments, is it not? Then why not make each moment worthy of remembrance? Why go behind the past or future? Just pure logic!

Content: To feel the urge to regain y o u r innocence you may have to go astray, because when you go astray and face the consequences, introspection starts. The introspection triggers the need to regain innocence. Don’t condemn yourself for going astray. Just bring in the awareness to integrate yourself into the right path forever. If maturity is going to happen this way it is definitely worth it.

Content: Maturity is taking a strong decision not to delude yourself anymore. It is to awaken to the consciousness within. It is to integrate yourself with honesty. When this happens, you start to become a child again. As a child, you were innocent but not with awareness. Somewhere in the process of growing up you lost the innocence. You are regaining it now. The new innocence will be with full awareness and that is the real innocence.

Content: When you regain the innocence, you flower with the understanding that there is nothing more priceless than becoming childlike again. That is the process of enlightenment.

Content: That is why a child’s innocence is to be nurtured with utmost care. For every innocent observation that a child makes, if we can be without imposing our knowledge on it, the child will grow up preserving its innocence. For example, if the child asks, ‘Why is it that the sky is blue sometimes and white sometimes?’ just tell the child that the sky is blue sometimes and white sometimes. He will anyway learn that in his lessons in school. But if you can tell him they are just the way they are, he will straightaway understand the spontaneity of nature. He will not be looking for further knowledge to feed himself with. The universities take care of that anyway.

Content: At home, when you are still the most influential person in his life, if you make him understand that that is they way things are, that there is no need to know it all with knowledge, the innocence in him survives. He doesn't catch the thread of passing judgment on nature. He learns to see without bringing words in. He learns to just see and be. The moment words are brought in, the innocence is lost. Then it is no more seeing. It becomes looking. The whole beauty of it is then lost.

Content: Growing up is always considered to be a serious thing. If you grow up in seriousness you only grow old. If you grow up in playfulness, you remain young! It is a good thing to see what children, animals and other creatures are doing at times because they all live with innocence and playfulness.

Content: It will help understand and reconnect with innocence.

Content: A small story:

Content: A lion was walking through the jungle taking a poll to determine who was the greatest among all the wild animals. He came across a rhinoceros and asked, 'Who is the king of the jungle?'

Content: The rhinoceros replied, 'Of course you are!' The lion was happy and walked on. Next, he came across a zebra. He asked the zebra, 'Tell me, who is the king of the jungle?'

Content: The zebra immediately replied, 'You are, oh king!' The lion walked on with great pride and saw an elephant. He asked the elephant, 'Tell me, who is the king of the jungle?' The elephant picked him up with his trunk, and swung him against a large tree. The lion bounced off the ground and said, 'You don't have to get so mad just because you don't know the right answer!'

Content: Innocence is the way to approach life! The moment you realize that you need to regain your innocence, you are ready for the transformation. The scale of measure of regaining innocence is to watch your reaction to the little things in life.

Content: Innocence sees all little things with awe and wonder. That is why children are so wonder filled all the time. You can see it in their wide eyes. If you are able to see things in wonder, then innocence has started happening in you. It is possible that with all the knowledge of the world you can still have clear and innocent eyes.

Content: Those are the eyes of the sage. Childlike innocence discovers many things but cannot understand most of it. It enjoys it at the level of its innocence, that's all. Whereas innocence regained not only discovers these new things, but also understands all of them. That is the difference.

Content: Childlike innocence is beautiful but not enough. It has to be lost to life and regained with complete awareness and maturity. It is said that a mad man and a mystic look alike. Both of them will be eccentric in their ways, laughing abruptly and doing things incomprehensible. But they are actually at the extreme two ends of the same spectrum! Extremes always look alike. Outwardly they appear to be the same, that's all. Similarly, a child and a saint may look alike in their innocence, but they are actually at the two extreme ends of the same spectrum. The child has not even started its achievement of regained innocence, while the saint has finished it. The innocence of the child is still the god given innocence he came with, not the innocence that here gained through life.

Content: The innocence of a child can be easily disturbed, whereas the innocence of a sage can never be disturbed. Getting the innocence disturbed and working to regain it permanently is the process of maturity.

Content: That is the travel through to the other end of the spectrum in becoming a saint. If a child is brought up in love, the innocence of the child is preserved. Then he moves around with his heart, not with his head. He may use his head as a utility but functions from his heart. It does not mean that the child will become useless.

Content: No. His innocence will not be corrupted by knowledge, that's all. He will be centered on love instead of on knowledge, that's all. Knowledge itself is not the problem. Only the attitude with which it is carried is the problem. With innocence regained, you will once again be able to look into the eyes of the other. Your innocence not only makes you vulnerable, it also makes you integrated.

Content: With knowledge, you are fragmented within you. With regained innocence, you are integrated and honest to yourself and to others. That honesty will radiate from your eyes and touch the other. That honesty is maturity. Just the longing to become innocent gain is enough. It will start destroying all that is not you inside you. After all, it is just layers of conditioning. But it is important to hold your will strong until the process is complete.

Content: The will is a constant reminder to be sincere and honest without cunningness. Decide not to rest until the de-conditioning is total. The beauty of maturity is that it allows you to function as a mature person when required and as a child at all other times. It easily allows you to flow from one to the other so that you are in perfect harmony with the Whole.

Content: When you regain your innocence, you are called dvija25, reborn, mature. The key is not to give up in your effort in regaining your innocence. The journey may be frustrating at times, because it is taking time and not happening. It is so because society has conditioned you with many layers. The onion has to be peeled layer after layer to reach the center. Frustration is a precondition to burst open with transformation. So don't relax, that is enough. It will happen. Remember, innocence is already in you. It is not about any end objective outside. Just this remembrance will give you the relaxation after every frustration. Everyday just sit for a few moments, sit by yourself and calmly go into your innocence. Feel the innocence in you. Feel the purity in you. Feel the overflowing from within you. Let it spread through your body, mind and being. Feel how beautiful you are in your innocence. Do this everyday. Soon you will see that you will awaken to it as your very nature. All that is not you will be burnt and the real you will emerge.

Content: Innocence has a totality about it. This totality is called grace. That is why enlightened masters appear to be so graceful and beautiful all the time. Innocence manifests itself as wondrous beauty to the eyes of the beholder. It is so total that even the most cunning mind cannot deny it. It simply defies all logic and touches you.

Content: Being innocent is like functioning from your very consciousness. It is thoughtless awareness. Until then you function from your mind. If you just sit and watch the source of every thought that rises in you, you will soon drop all thoughts and go back to the thoughtless awareness that you had as a child. Thoughtless awareness is innocence.

Content: But this time it will be the innocence of maturity because you have gone through the process. Thoughtless awareness doesn't add to your knowledge. It simply deepens your innocence and makes you see the universe with more awe and wonder. Innocence sees no opposites, it just sees, that's all. Its beauty is in its nonjudgmental seeing.

Content: A man went to see his girlfriend after a long time. Unfortunately, he found that her younger brother who was much younger to her was sitting there watching television and eating some snack. He sat beside him and told him, 'You know what? If you sit upstairs in the terrace and watch the road, for every man wearing a red hat

Content: 25 Dvija - Twice born. Refers to the state of awakening of Consciousness.

Content: that passes by you, I will give you fifty cents.' The boy was thrilled and raced up the stairs and assumed his position in the terrace.

Content: The man took his position beside his girlfriend. Ten minutes later, just as he was getting intimate with her, the boy rushed into the room. The man was terribly disappointed and shouted, 'Didn't I tell you to watch the road for men with red hats?' The boy replied gasping for breath, 'I know! A parade just went by and at fifty cents a head, you owe me twelve hundred dollars!'

Content: We always think children are immature. We think that the grownups who cry are immature. We are conditioned to believe that expression of any emotion is immature. Expressing the emotions in an unfiltered way is a sign of innocence. The cunning ones edit even their emotions.

Content: Once in a while it is good to cry in front of people. What is wrong with it? What are you trying to hide? By crying you are only expressing your true feelings. What is there to hide? The problem is that society has always taught us to hide our true nature and show only our projected personality.

Content: That is why with time we forget what our nature is. We forget how to be innocent.

Content: One teacher told the parent during the parent teacher meeting, 'Your daughter is very good in all her activities. She is just a little emotionally immature. But she will be alright.' The parent looked at her in a puzzled way and asked, 'At three, how else do you expect her to be?'

Content: Just by being with children as their friend, as their playmate, it is possible to get back in touch with the innocence. When you are with them don't pretend to be like a child. Take it really seriously and become a child! It is the greatest favor you can do to yourself.

Content: The problem is that we are afraid of losing what society taught us. From society we learnt how to build our personality. But our character is different from our personality. Character is real. Personality is a built up image. If we work towards solidifying character, we are working in the zone of reality. If we work towards solidifying personality, we are working in the zone of dreams.

Content: You may have noticed that when you are sitting at the table and eating with your children, they will hold up the little potato chips and admire the shape of each chip before eating. They have the ability to be enchanted by life's eternal mysteries and wonders. That is their greatest blessing.

Content: They don't think, they just enjoy, that's all. When the child draws our attention to the chip, we ask him to eat fast! We miss the moment of getting led into life's mysteries. We miss stumbling upon our own innocence.

Content: There are umpteen ways to rediscover the child hiding in you. Just play hide and seek with children or learn how to make cookies or watch Tom and Jerry cartoons or eat different color cotton candies or make mud dolls! All these will bring out the child in you. Your solid identity will dissolve. You will become fluid like a river and flow. The weight of your seriousness will drop and you will become light and blissful.

Content: Seriousness is ego. When you are afraid of getting hurt, when you are afraid of losing your control or power, you become serious. When you are too centered on yourself this happens. When you let go and play and touch your innocence again, you will suddenly enjoy a break from yourself. That break is the falling of your seriousness. In that gap you will realize there is nothing to hold on to. There is only free spirit. When you become aware of this you can work on it consciously and move towards becoming completely innocent and sincere. Innocence is keeping the consciousness at the level of the heart, not allowing it to settle in the head.

Content: Exercises:

Content:

1. What is innocence?

Content: 2. Explain on the term 'belief'

Content: 3. Brief on 'silence is the space of unlearning and learning'

Content: 4. What do you understand by drop cunningness and become spontaneous?

Content: 5. State the difference between childlike innocence and maturity?

Content: About The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam

Content: The Supreme Pontiff of Hinduism ("SPH"), Jagatguru Mahasannidhanam ("JGM"), His Divine Holiness ("HDH") Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam, is recognized as the 1008th living incarnation of Paramashiva as per Sanatana Hindu Dharma ("Hinduism") and by His predecessors of enlightened masters and adepts

Content: The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam is reviving Hinduism as the 1008th Acharya Mahamandaleshwar (the head for all spiritual leaders) of Atal Akhada (ancient apex body of Hinduism), coronated as Mahamandaleshwar (Supreme Spiritual Head) of Maha Nirvani Akhada (largest apex monastic order) and the youngest Mahamandaleshwar, ordained as the 233rd Guru Mahasannidhanam (Pontiff) of Thondai Mandala Aadheenam, ordained as the 293rd Guru Mahasannidhanam (Pontiff) of Shyamalapeeta Sarvajnapeetam, ordained as the 23rd Guru Mahasannidhanam of Dharmamukthi Swargapuram Aadheenam, and coronated as the 203rd Emperor of Suryavamsa Surangi Samrajyam.

Content: The Srimad Karana Agama, Purva bhaga, Patala 71, Sakalotpatti vidhi, Sloka 8 & 9 (Sacred Ancient Hindu scripture) declares:

Content: इत्येवं निष्कलं प्रोक्तं परं भावमिति स्मृतम्। सृष्टिस्थं लोकरक्षार्थं लोकस्योत्पत्तिकारणम्।। साधकानां हितार्थं तु स्वेच्छया गृहीतते तनु:।।

Content: In this way (Shiva) who is Nishkala - without any body and parts, who is the Ultimate Supreme Being, who is established in the Creation, who is the Cause of the creation of the Universe, assumes a body out of His Free Will for the protection of the Universe, and for the welfare of the Spiritual seekers and Devotees.

Content: The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam is the reigning spiritual emperor of 17 ancient traditional Hindu kingdoms and the reviver of the most ancient, most peaceful, still-living and long-lasting demonstrable system that shows the possibility of peaceful co-existence amongst people. Following the coronation to establish KAILASA worldwide at the age of 16, for the past 27 years, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam, as the face of the unified Hindus, has been single-handedly, tirelessly inspiring the dispossessed Hindu Diaspora to reclaim their Hindu centric freedom and stand unified for the centuries-old Hindu genocide.

Content: The 1008th living incarnation of Paramaśiva, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam stands as the unifying force for the 2 billion born and practicing Hindu diaspora worldwide and established the Hindu State, KAILASA for the persecuted Hindus in over 100 countries.

Content: The SPH Nithyanada Paramashivam has made resolute efforts towards recognizing and legitimizing the Hindu genocide which has been receiving scant consideration by global leaders and international bodies, The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam founded KAILASA Uniting Nations. For the past 27 years, this international body has been responsible in building relations, bridging dialogs, inspiring leaders, uniting nations towards acknowledging the Hindu policies which are universal, life positive as referenced from the ancient text of Hinduism. This is the 'ahimsa' (non-violent) way of bringing acknowledgment to the horrors of the Hindu genocide, the untold facts of the darkest act of mankind on Earth to the most contributing civilization - KAILASA.

Content: KAILASA is an apolitical nation whose vision is enlightened living for all. Towards this goal, KAILASA is the only Hindu nation on planet Earth today bringing legitimacy to the principles of Hinduism. Social principles, economic principles, judicial principles, Hindu medical principles, and Hindu economic principles. KAILASA is The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam's response to humanity's global problems of poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, violence and global warming and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries.

Content: Over the last 50 years, the effects of meditation and its significant impact on stress, crime rates, violence, political decision making and even war in local and global consciousness is well established. Unfortunately, in the last two hundred years, forcibly we are made to believe Hinduism is a functional principle only for enlightenment and spirituality. It is absolutely dysfunctional for the political, social, economical system. Making Hindu family structure, Hindu social structure dysfunctional is the greatest crime done against humanity.

Content: Sanatana Hindu Dharma has faced both historical and ongoing religious persecution and systematic violence, in various forms including assassination attempts on living incarnations, targeted elimination of Hindu pontiffs through bio war and lawfare, cyberbullying, Hindu phobia, forced conversions, documented massacres, demolitions, desecration and grabbing of worship temples and monasteries, looting of Hindu temples properties, destruction of Hindu educational institutions, elimination of well known Hindu libraries, the gross violation to the freedom to practice the Hindu school of liberated thinking (Sankhya), Hindu schools of living enlightenment (Jeevan Mukthi), gross violations of the right to freedom of religion that includes violations of the right to life, personal Hindu integrity or personal Hindu liberty, mass execution, looting and enslavement.

Content: Hinduism was once practiced freely in over 56 nations across the continent from Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Burma, Sri Lanka, all the way to Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia and Indonesia, and in 200 states, 1700 samasthanas (provinces) and 10,000 sampradayas (traditions). Over several centuries the combined forces of foreign invasion, political upheaval, colonialism and religious persecution systematically ended millennia of Hindu Swarajya, or self-rule. Today Hindu temples remain in a few countries but the Hindus who worshiped in them have been ethnically cleansed.

Content: The revival of Hinduism through the civilizational nation of KAILASA globally irked vested interests of atheistic terrorist militant elements, caste supremacist terrorists and other anti-Hindu forces who executed a massive persecution and genocide on SPH and His followers on 2 March 2010 that continued for the next whole decade and comprised of over 70 assassination attempts, over 250 sexual assaults on SPH and his monks and disciples, lawfare of 120 false cases over 10 years, massive hate propaganda in electronic media of over 14,000 hours and print media of over 25,000 articles in 5 years, destruction of heritage properties worth over 27 million USD, and the continuing ethnocide and genocide of over 80 million Hindus worldwide since 7 centuries. Specifically, the lawfare involved:

Content: Delegitimizing SPH by hate propaganda, disenfranchising Him of His civil and human rights, prejudicing Him from fair representation and fair trial

Content: Repeated illegal imprisonment, with brazen torture, custodial assassination attempts, supported by system justification in various forms, including the common processes of bureaucracy, indifference, self-deception, diffused responsibility and has resulted in continued systemic complicity with torture, murder and genocide

Content: Well-planned multi-layer false hate propaganda by the ‘fourth estate’ media sustained by moral disengagement, leaving the broader public in a state of willful ignorance, motivated denial, out-group victim-blaming, dehumanization and bystander apathy to even genocide.

Content: The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam stands in solidarity with the untold, multi-level - social, political, intellectual, religious, cultural, linguistic, economic, legal, digital - persecution done to Hinduism and faced by Hindus and Hindu minorities worldwide for the past several thousands of years continues through the modern day. The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam has been recently acknowledged by the United Nations for the persecution of The SPH and the KAILASA global community, especially the affected women and children.

Content: The KAILASA with de facto spiritual embassies operating across over 100 countries and having presence across the globe as the largest spiritual knowledge source on Hinduism is spiritually governed with the life positive, all-inclusive, universal policies sourced from Hinduism revived by the SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam. Having enriched and ennreached more than one billion individuals over the past 27 years the KAILASA raises the voice to protect Hindus, defend Hindus and preserve the Hindu narrative for the world.