A teacher walks the path first

Once upon a time in Tibet, there was a famous Master Nansen. Worthy students flocked to him to learn something worth learning. Three young princes Wang-Tsu, Chang-Tsu and Cheng-Tsu enrolled to study under him. They were well versed in martial arts and well trained in battle. They could shoot down a bird hundred feet away, spear a lion without even seeing it and catch a fish with their bare hands. After spending a few years in the monastery, a desire took form in their minds to visit India. When they approached the master, he told them that they were not yet ready to undertake such a difficult journey across the Himalayas. The princes were confident over their abilities and persisted. Reluctantly Nansen agreed and advised them, “Here is a packet of food that should last you for seven days. Start tomorrow early morning and cross the mountain ranges with in the week. After that a mighty storm will blow and close the pass for the rest of the year. On the second day, bathe in the Gandarva Sarovar and cross the swamps. Count your breath and keep it in 1:2 ratio. Account for all your food. The sick and wounded have to stay behind or else all of you will perish”.

The princes thought that they old man was needlessly scaring them. “ I have tore apart a hungry lion with my bare hands”, said Wang. “I have walked through burning fire”, said Chang. “I have fasted for 3 months”, said Cheng. The following morning they started out as per the master’s instructed route and reached Gandarva Sarovar. They set up a small fire and camped on its bank. In the morning when they woke up, the fire had died and it was bitterly cold. Wang being a bit lazy decided to skip the dip into the lake. The other two were shivering and their bodies were cold as a rock when they came out of the lake. Wang laughed at their plight, “Use your sense, and don’t just follow all that the old man said blindly”. Within a few minutes they were deep into the swamp and a swarm of mosquitoes and flies were circling around Wang. The heat of his body and the sweat attracted the insects like magnets and they bit him furiously all over the body. The numb cold bodies of the other too allowed them to escape undetected and it was their turn to laugh. By the time they crossed the swamp, Wang had developed a severe fever and could no longer walk. He told his brothers, “Please leave me to my fate under this tree and proceed. If I survive, I will retrace my steps to the monastery. Alas!! The might Wang who could tear apart a lion met his inglorious end in the hands of some little insects”.

As they proceeded, Chang who was a sensitive person grieved over his brother’s situation and forgot his breath. On the third day when they reached the ice clad mountains, he started feeling dizzy. His face was swollen and he had palpitations. He told Cheng, “You should now proceed without me. Take all the food we have and offer my humble salutations to the land of Buddha”. Cheng, being the strongest continued the journey alone and crossed the mountains on the fifth day and reached a dense forest. He calculated that he had more food than needed and left behind some packets every time he rested to reduce his burden. A bear caught his scent and killed him in the night when he was sleeping on a tree. Nansen turned his page over and continued writing his book.

The King is the soul; The Prince is the mind

Once upon a time and again, there was a King. He had 5 sons who were of great caliber. After they finished their education and mastered the weapons of their choice, the King called them and told them, "Each one of you have mastered a weapon but that is still not sufficient to protect the nation. So each one of you head out in a different direction and return after a year". The princes headed out on white horses and returned exactly a year later mastering unique skills. A demonstration of their new abilities was organized and all the subjects assembled at the Royal arena. The eldest prince raised his hand, and there was a volley of arrows. The second prince opened his mouth and he could throw a flame at any thing. The third prince clapped his hands and suddenly there was lightning and thunder. The forth prince could talk to the horses and make them walk over fire or a battalion of soldiers on foot. The youngest prince could teletransport from one point to another in space. All the subjects felt that their kingdom was now very secure and nobody could attack it with such brave and extraordinary princes to protect it.
A few days later, a powerful demon arose from the shadows of the forests and struck terror in the hearts of the villagers. The King summoned his minister and said "None of my sons are ready for battle. So please take care of this demon for me". All the princes were shocked and grieve struck by these words of their father. The eldest prince interpreted that he was not fit to be a warrior and became a dancer. The second prince ruminated over these words so much and over analyzed it and eventually went mad and drowned himself in a pond. The third prince went back to his teacher and continued training to become ready for battle. The fourth prince felt humiliated and abandoned the kingdom. The youngest prince teletransported himself to the demon in hot blood before the minister and the army arrived and was killed.

The path should also choose you

Spiritual path has been called the path of light and fire by Swami Rama; light denoting the wisdom that you gain and the fire denoting the difficulty in walking the path. For me, the journey is more important than the destination. Most of us spend a lot of time trying to choose a path, a Guru, weigh the advantages; judge our experiences and results. All these activities lose their significance the moment we realize that we are not the center of the universe. Among the grand scheme of things played by the Creator we are just a speck of dust. The moment we understand this and accept this, the question “Have I chosen the right path?” magically turns around to “Has the path chosen me?”
There are millions of paths. Some lead to God; some lead to Hell; some lead to nowhere; some are just intermittent paths. A Sadhak walks on a combination of these paths and that is why each Sadhak’s journey is unique and different. If you are walking on the Satvik path, you have to be a Satvik person. Your thoughts and actions should be Satvik. Your values, believes and philosophy have to match the path. You must be strong enough to walk on the path and endure all the pains. Only then will the path accept you. If not, it will mercilessly throw you out; you will land somewhere; you will have to recover and find a new path that matches your temperament. Just claiming that you are walking on Satvik path is of no avail. If you are walking on the yogic path then you have to accept that there will be no miracles. Miracles are against the rules of nature and yogic path is the acceptance of the rules of nature and quickening your evolution by the power of Sadhana. I do not know if miracles happen or not but if you seek them yogic path will only lead you to disappointment.
As the journey proceeds, you will see the results of progress yourself. On a Satvik path, you will see that your inner Self is becoming better gradually. On the outside your health; wealth will keep fluctuating based on the Karmic laws, but in the inside you will be achieving more peace and distributing it all around you. Yogic path will not make your pains and miseries go away but will make you strong enough to endure them. Maturity is nothing but the ability to accept all the joys and sorrows on the path and not trying to avoid them. When maturity grows fully in the inside of your persona, you will be able to accept death with little fear or protest, more so welcome it with total joy…
A recent incident exposed my immaturity and humbled my pride. My journey took me on a path in the remote mountain peaks of the Himalayas. I was caught alone on a narrow cliff connecting two mountain ranges when fear incarnated on me. I had accented half the cliff and seen that the steep precipice below was at least a couple of kilometers. A hundred steps were needed to cross or to return. Each foot hold was a couple of feet higher vertically and the ground was loose. The grass was slippery and wet and my legs were shaking out of control. There were no markings and I did not know if I was on the right path to make the crossing. If not I had to backtrack and navigate through another branch of the maze. The descent was the real scary part. I had effortlessly run down steeper paths in the past but today I was on all my fours. In the waking state I had bragged that I was fearless and death was not the worst thing that could happen to you. But today my scramble made me suspect my own sincerity. I had done many more dangerous daredevil stunts but today fear had made me an animal. I found a ledge with some solid ground to sit. I took off my backpack and tried to relax. For twenty minutes I tried all the yogic tricks that I had learnt in the past fifteen years to calm my mind but nothing worked.
“Don’t worry I am there” said atman.
“You are there and I am here, and that exactly is the problem”, said the mind.
“There is no you and me. It is just me everywhere”.
“True, but when it hurts, I have to bear all the pain”.
“Nobody is going to get hurt. Just calm down and you will be able to proceed”.
“That is what I have been doing for the past twenty minutes but my legs are not stopping to shake”.
“You know that you had been on worse cliffs and worse situations”.
“Yes but today my only gear is a pair of shoes and the soles of each of them are held in place by one single nail. If I slip, not even a helicopter rescue mission would be able to find my bone powder. More likely it might be a couple of years before another human strays into these lands. Nobody even knows that we are here. It was a complete secret mission to seek God, remember?”
“In that case you will die but that is not the end of things and what more better way to die than seeking truth in the Himalayas”.
“True, but what if I don’t die and I am just stuck hanging in between. It is starting to drizzle and I have neither the food nor the clothes to spend the night”.
“These things affect just the body. There is more to you than meets the eye. Prepare to meditate till the end of time”.
“The past fifteen minutes I have not managed to meditate for a single second and you just said that this is the peak of physical conditions till the end of time that I would come to know”.
“We are now covered by the clouds and you cannot see anything other than one step down. This is a boon in disguise. So descend one step at a time and you will be able to make it back”.
“Yes, I will try but I can see the valley below even with my eyes closed and even my limbs know how deep below it is”.
“Focus; live in the present! The next step is your present. Do not think further”.
“Yes, but after 10 steps down what if I realize that I had sidetracked and there is no step down”.
As this conversation went on for millions of years, Swami Dayanand Giriji’s words made new sense to me. Samadhi is the state of union with God. Every living being gets to meet God in deep sleep indiscriminately. What distinguishes real yogis is their ability to meet God at will. For meditation to be really useful, one should be able to meditate at any given time, at any given place, in the presence or absence of any person or object. Only then will meditation become and useful tool. I laughed down upon myself in this situation and felt what Karna went through his final battle. The only time he needed all those things that he had accomplished in his life, nothing would come forth to his memory. I suddenly felt humbled that all my accomplishments were so trite. What dawned cannot be put into words nor expressed. But I understood that the yogic path is all about disciplining the mind. There will be many a time a thin glass wall between you and your goal; you and Him; between wakefulness and Samadhi; whatever you call it. It seems that you have almost reached it but when the final moment arrives all your preparations seem to be in vain. The yogic path is all about training the mind, training yourself so that your meditation does not fail when that moment arrives. Till that happens you have to keep training.
As a kid when I had heard our damsel in distress, Draupadi call out to Krishna for a Saree, I had exclaimed, “What a fool she is! If she could call God and He would grant her wish, why ask a Saree when she clearly knew that Moksha was the real thing”. Now even if I succeeded in my secret mission, I was not sure what I would ask as I was so caught up in the moment. I laughed down again at my vanity realizing that I was no better than anybody. Very humbling but true! The physical connotation of these things had a deep meaning in my spiritual journey and this is how I learnt something about “My Path”.

Just like that

This story can be anywhere anytime. There was a big old tree standing alone on the top of a small hill, just like that. Elsewhere there was a donkey standing alone, just like that. All of a sudden a lightning struck and reduced the tree to ashes, just like that. The donkey got enlightened just like that.

Now continue this story, just like that…

Stand out of my light

One story that has been told over and over again is about the meeting of Diogenes and Alexander, the Great. When told under a spiritual context, it is not to document history but to put across a couple of points that the great masters have to teach. Hence you will hear many versions of the same. This version is my favorite because it marks the height of awareness and consciousness that a person can reach and how much we can simplify our lives. It is also not Rajasic and tells us what true surrender means.
Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who roamed around naked and owned absolutely no possessions. Some say that Diogenes was the Greek name for Dandi. Once upon a time he was living under a tree beside a river. He ate whatever people gave him. People thought he was mad. One day when he dipped his begging bowl into the river he saw a dog drinking water. It glanced at Diogenes from the corner of its eyes as if “What is this animal doing?” It immediately occurred to him that he actually did not need a bowl to drink water and immediately threw it into the river and started drinking water just the way the dog did. The dog immediately accepted him and from that day they both started living together under the same tree and sharing whatever they found to eat.
Now Aristotle had asked Alexander to meet Diogenes. Alexander’s army happened to camp nearby and his military officers reported to him that Diogenes was living outside the village. Alexander immediately sent an officer to invite him. When the officer arrived, Diogenes was lying under the tree and it was past noon.
The officer said, “Alexander, the Great wants to meet you. So please do come with me”. Diogenes said, “Oh!! I love meeting people and would have gladly joined you if I did not have all these guests to entertain all day. So please tell your king that I will not be able to come”. At this the officer looked around and said, “I can’t see a single person here. All the time you are just lying around and mumbling to yourself. Where are your guests?” Diogenes replied, “You see, in the morning, a cold wind rubs past my body and wakes me up. No sooner am I finished talking with the wind, the birds in this tree wake up. You see, there are quite a lot of them on this big tree and I have to talk to each and every one of them and send them of to work. And by that time, the Sun comes. He is my good old friend and I have a lot to talk with him. Further he comes only once a day. When he is gone, I bathe in the river and talk to the fishes. When I am done entertaining all these guests, I am completely beat and collapse. Consider my age. I will not have any strength remaining. And the same story keeps repeating every day”.
The officer had heard that Diogenes was a mad man. So he went back to the camp and reported to the emperor that Diogenes was too busy to meet him without going into the details. Alexander, himself rode down to meet Diogenes the next day. When he arrived, Diogenes and the dog had finished feeding and were lying on their bellies and enjoying the Sunshine beside the river. They did not even care to move when the party arrived. The guard stumped his spear and announced, “Diogenes, do you know who has arrived to meet you?” Diogenes opened one eyelid and drowsily asked “Who?” The guard continued, “Alexander, the emperor of the world.”
At this Alexander spoke gently, “Diogenes, I am pleased to finally meet you. If there is anything you want, please ask me and I will give you all that you want to make your living comfortable”. Diogenes said, “Alexander or who ever you are, I was enjoying the Sun before you came and stood between us. So if you could, please move out of the way and I will be comfortable again”. Alexander felt ashamed and moved aside but the guard felt offended and cried out, “You fool, do you even know who Alexander is? He is the only person who has defeated all the armies in the world.” Now Diogenes moved a bit and said, “You see the wind that breezes past, if it stops moving in and out of your lungs, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else. You see this river flowing. If it stops giving water, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else. You see the Sun shining above your head. If it stops giving light, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else.” Alexander understood the meaning and Diogenes had said everything that was to be said. Before leaving, he made a closing remark, “Had I not been Alexander, I would have liked to be Diogenes.” Hearing these words, Diogenes suddenly sprang up and just like an innocent child said, “Had I not been Diogenes, I surely would not have liked to be Alexander.”
-Retold by AtmaAnanda

Why do I meditate?

Once upon a time a great Tao had two disciples – Lao Tse and Chuang Tzu. Both of them had spiritually reached all the heights as their master and very wise and experienced. But they still had a subtle competition between them, each one trying to prove to be better than the other in their master’s eyes. There are many symbolic stories on how the master tried to correct them and here is an interesting one to ruminate.

They lived on a hill in a remote forest. One day, the master and his disciples went to the village to beg for food. While returning, it rained heavily and there was a flash flood. A stream of fast moving water blocked their path. The three of them sat down to meditate. After 15 minutes, Lao Tse got up. He had meditated on the form of a lotus. So he crossed the stream walking over the water as if it were solid ground. Chuang Tzu got up after 30 minutes. He had meditated on the form of a dragon. Quickly he slid like a snake and emerged on the other shore with no effort. The Tao however got up only after two hours. He had a radiant smile on his face and was totally in bliss. He put two steps into the water, fell down and was carried away by the current.

-Story by Sri RajGopal M.,retold by AtmaAnanda

Interview - Part 2

By choosing this life are you not escaping from your responsibilities?
No, in fact I am fully accepting my responsibilities and further expanding them. Escaping is something you do when you are not ready to face reality. A person may use drugs or alcohol to escape temporarily. A person may abandon his life when the going gets tough. For instance, when a close relative dies, when he looses his job, when his business fails, when he commits a crime ... if a person runs away, that is escaping. I have done none of these. I was pretty happy in my social and family surroundings when I took this decision. Further I am now available to take care of my aged parents. When ever there is a need, I attend to it, I am not running away. I have enough capacity to do that. After fulfilling those needs, I am utilizing rest of my time for meditation. This is where I differ from others in a similar position where they feel insecure and run behind money not knowing when to stop. While most fellow beings put up with the evils in the social system either with the pretext of not having time or being afraid of being victimized, I fight for my rights. I got all my dealings with the system like getting my DL, passport, tickets by standing in queue. Not only am I available to the call of my family but I am learning to accept the whole world as my family and trying to attend to everybody’s call. So my responsibilities if anything have expanded. Only thing is I am trying to be less selfish, less self centered, less insecure, less mean and less impatient.

Isn’t seeking for one’s own Moksha the most selfish thing to do?
I am of the opinion that seeking Moksha is the only thing to do. What ever you do in life is either irrelevant or a step towards Moksha. In Bhagvadgita, Lord Krishna says that only one can help himself in the path of Moksha. No body can give it to you as a gift and you can not give it to anybody as a gift. You have to earn it yourself. And it is ever living being’s foremost duty. It is a different thing that most people get disoriented and start running behind money, fame, … That is the game of Maya. When people say that they want Moksha, most of them do not know what Moksha is. They have seen unhappiness in life and they have heard somebody saying that if you attain Moksha you will be never sad again. So when they say that they want Moksha, what they actually mean is that they want to escape the unhappiness around them. Now this Moksha can be achieved irrespective of your marital status, citizenship, work status, profession, wealth, sex, beliefs… Time again people have attained Moksha across all these boundaries to prove this point. The lifestyle that you choose should just be conducive to your evolution at that point. Further, Moksha is obtained through divine grace. It is beyond your control to command when the grace descends on you, but when it descends you should be ready. It is a natural phenomenon like death. No matter how much you love a person or an object, you can not take it with you when you die. You die alone. So is the case with Moksha. If Moksha is selfish, so is dying. Now your question becomes ridiculous.

There are so many poor people in India. May be you can help them instead?
You can help a poor person become rich but that does not end his sufferings. Both rich and poor people are unhappy. Many poor people are happier than many rich people. That has to do with the mind. All the so called social work that people do is to change the standard of living. But the problem of unhappiness stems in the mind. People have to understand these themselves and have to work for it themselves. May be that a great person like the Buddha can help them in some way, but until you attain enlightenment there is almost nothing that you can do to help your fellow beings spiritually!

Why did you pick this Guru? I know of people who are more powerful, more famous than him.
A Guru – Shishya relationship is more complicated and I too do not understand it completely. You do not pick a Guru like you pick a shirt at a store. Neither can a Guru arbitrarily pick a disciple or deny one. The Guru Tatva is more important. And when ever there is a need, God sends a being in physical form to guide an aspirant at that point. Neither of them might have planned to meet but when they meet, both will know it. That is the game of destiny. In fact, your Guru will only show you the path, motivate you and provide you with relevant facts that you are unaware of when you need to make a decision. You have to walk by yourself. May be you both can walk together for a while but soon everybody has to walk to their destination. Each being has a different destination and there are as many paths to it as there are beings.
I never claim that my Guru is the best or the most powerful. That would be like a child claiming that her father is the strongest man in the world. Further for any relationship to be successful, it should not be conditioned on the capacity of others in it. If you marry a wealthy person expecting that he will be showering you with comforts, his money can melt away tomorrow. Power shifts hands. Change happens. But you still stick to the relationship because you have the inner strength to offer and not because you receive from your spouse. That is a true promise. That is where a real relationship differs from a business. If you choose your Guru based on his google pagerank, his popularity or his success numbers, there is only so much that you will get out of it spiritually.

Love and truth

True love is like the sunshine and the water flowing from the river. The Sun does not discriminate to whom he gives his light. The river gives its water to a good person as well as an evil person. Some idiots wash their behinds in the very river that they drink from. The river is all forgiving and gives water to them also. The river continues flowing from the spring to the ocean continuously. It can not stop. I am a dry well. There is no love in me to give. I can not give what I do not have. Pretending to love by putting up a fake smile is hypocrisy. It is all a game of the mind and is of no avail. True love has to come from the bottom of the heart. It is the job of the Guru to break the rock and start the spring of love. The well can not dig itself.

Love is the most powerful weapon. Those who have it know its complete qualities. Those who do not have it can only see the effects when the weapon strikes. Truth is different. Though love is truth, truth is not love. It is possible for everybody to be truthful. It is a choice that they can make. But love is a gift to possess not a choice to make. When a person is truthful, he is like a perfect mirror. Who ever looks into the mirror will immediately see his own reflection. A negative person will see his flaws and hate the mirror for no fault of the mirror. If the mirror can also give love unconditionally then the person will admit his imperfections and take steps to improve himself. But if the mirror is a dry ordinary one, the person will hate it and even destroy it. So one has to be careful while choosing whom to give the mirror.

Self-Interview

Why did you quit U.S?

I was against the US invasions. My tax money was used to wage those wars. I had no voting rights in this regard. So the only option that I had was to quit.

Why did you quit your job?

I was very happy in my job with Microsoft. One day we had a work shop where the H.R.D were assessing the morale of the employees and were subjecting us to different activities. During one such activity, eight of us were on a discussion table and had to answer certain questions. The H.R. girl asked “How would you change your life if I gave you a billion dollars”. The guys on the table went on saying that they would buy a boat, go on a world trip, open a charity organization, invest in x,y,z… but when my turn came I seriously thought over the question and answered from my heart, “My life would be exactly the same as it is today. I would drive the same car, live in the same place, work the same job and do all the things that I do today. The state of my personal finances might improve but there is nothing more that I need and can do with the extra billion that I can not do now”. So people concluded that I did not need to work any more. I went home thinking what is it that makes me work? I liked my job, my team. I got time to skate and train. My life was balanced and disciplined. I had interesting things to do and intelligent people to work with. It was not the money that drove me and I was not attached to anything. I had every thing to keep me going till Guruji called me back to the ashram. Yes, I had plans of joining the ashram soon after my first visit but every time I brought up the subject, Guruji pushed it aside saying “There is more that you need to do in the U.S.”. I had always kept my material possessions that everything could fit into my car. I was always ready to wrap all my transactions and return to India in 24 hrs. Then out of the blue a question sprang up in my mind - “What would you do if you happened to know that you would die in a month?” The answer was very clear. I would go back to my Guruji and spend the rest of my life in service. And what was preventing me from doing this? - The idea that I would live for many more years. Wasn’t this exactly called Maya? This convinced me that the right thing to do was quit.

How did you decide that the time was right?

In the real world you will never know when the time is right for things like that. Future insecurity and risk aversion keeps one on postponing such decisions. Working in the U.S. meant that you only had 3 weeks of vacation every year and I always had to be very stingy with it so that I could accumulate everyday of it for the ashram. I had finished work for a major release and got an opportunity to visit the Amazons and spend a month with the tribes in the deep forest. This convinced me that I was ready to survive on nothing and also gave me an insight that the people were the same everywhere and the fundamental problems were the same every where. Now that exhausted all my vacation days and my only sister’s wedding was fixed. Since things were not that hectic at work may be I could have worked something out, especially because I was in the good books of my bosses. But I thought that it was not right to portray myself as some one that I was not going to be to my sister’s in-laws after the wedding. So I had to quit before that.

Did your Guruji finally call you?

Well as I said, Guruji had been postponing this question for eight years. I finally decided that I had to take a leap by myself and take complete responsibility for my actions. In the spiritual path, there is a lot of risk and very few succeed. If I fail, I should not blame Guruji for coercing me into the path or such. May be that was the reason that he was postponing the question. Or may be, that I was not ready yet. In any case, I had nothing to loose by engaging in full time Sadhana and developing my Self till the time came. I had come to know by then that your body had to be fit and young to engage in serious Sadhana but working a job can be done even when you were old and broken. I did not ask Guruji, but I just informed him formally as every disciple is bound to. He did not object and there I was back.

Did you get some kind of omen that you were doing the right thing?

Nothing concrete that I can tell as such happened. But it is my belief that when you are doing the thing that you are meant to do, nature co-operates and when you are doing some thing that you are not meant to do, nature throws all kinds of blocks to hamper your progress. So I went along playing the game and testing how it unrolls.

I had sufficient FF miles to get my ticket back home free. My car got sold to a good friend. I distributed my furniture and utensils amongst my friends. My room lease expired naturally. There was no resistance from any front. I had told my intentions to my friends, relatives and all those who mattered and it did not surprise anyone or disrupt their lives in any way. I achieved all my skating goals.

At work, I was supposed to give a month’s notice but we had just finished shipping a major release and the next month was December. In the U.S. nothing much happens in that month and there was not much point in keeping me there. So it was a Friday when I told my boss that I was quitting, and he asked “How soon?” I told him “I have booked my flight next Monday. If you insist on me serving the one month notice, I will have to take a loss of pay, attend my sister’s wedding and then come back and work during the Christmas holidays”. He said, “Well if we were in middle of a cycle I might have thought along those lines. As I have told you, you were a good hire and we would have done everything to keep you here but now I see the reason for you leaving is quite unusual and there is nothing that we can counter that with. And if I do anything to retain you, that will be against your will. I would rather suffer the loss of a good worker rather than keep him here unhappy. So I would say, if you change your mind at any point, just ping me and we will have you back on board”. He threw me a farewell lunch on Monday noon and I boarded the evening flight.

Thus, all things fell in place and I was able to wind up all my transactions and clean up without causing any friction.

What did you plan on doing once you joined the ashram?

I had never made any concrete plans as everything depended on what Guruji would ask me to do. In the end every body has to serve. But I had guessed that he would ask me to travel all over India on foot of something of that sort. If I passed the test, he would give me some Sadhana. If I failed, it would mean that I would not be alive. Till then I could keep reading some scriptures or may be learn some music.

Do you think that you have progressed in any way by joining the ashram?

Spirituality is a slow moving world. It is not like you get out n papers, m patents or get promoted every year. You don’t switch jobs, move places, buy and sell things. You just stick to one thing and keep doing it long enough. I am just like a young kid in this area and need to spend much more time here before measuring progress.

I had already spent some 20 odd years getting this western education before being able to say something in one narrow area. Unless I spend some time educating my self in the matter of spirituality, I have no authority to comment about progress or even to know what it means. Most successful aspirants have spent around 12 yrs with their Guru before learning anything. So I have to be patient and keep working at it.

Do you ever repent your decision?

I never have repented my decision but I do miss my life at Microsoft. The quality of people around you is so much better in that place. As you see, I did not quit because I did not like it there but because I thought that there was something else of higher priority to be done here. I do miss my skating. I do miss working with computers, writing code, going on hikes and visiting beautiful places. I do sometimes thing about my friends there but now it seems like it was in some other life.

But on the other hand, when I am able to lie down under the open sky with only a T-shirt on me in the month of December and count my lucky stars, I do commemorate the decision of moving out of Seattle. I like the Sun and a lot and hate the clouds. So every time I see those big negative temperatures on the Weather News, I can’t help but smile on my good fortune.

Ignorance is no bliss

Voltaire was a French Philosopher, “as wise as it is possible for men to be; …” He met a good Brahmin who said, “I wish I had never been born!”

“Why so?” said Voltaire.

“Because,” he replied, “I have been studying these forty years, and I find that it has been so much time lost… I believe that I am composed of matter, but I have never been able to satisfy myself what it is that produces thought, I am even ignorant whether my understanding is a simple faculty like that of walking or digesting, or if I think with my head in the same manner as I take hold of a thing with my hands… I talk a great deal, and when I have done speaking I remain confounded and ashamed of what I have said.”

The same day he had a conversation with an old woman, his neighbor. I asked her if she had ever been unhappy for not understanding how her soul was made? She did not even comprehend his question. She had not, for the briefest moment in her life, had a thought about these subjects with which the good Brahmin had so tormented himself. She believed in the bottom of her heart in the metamorphoses of Vishnu, and provided she could get some of the sacred water of the Ganga in which to make her ablutions, she thought herself the happiest of women. Struck with the happiness of this poor creature, he returned to Brahmin, whom he thus addressed:

“Are you not ashamed to be thus miserable when, not fifty yards from you, there is an old automaton who thinks of nothing and lives contended?”

“You are right,” he replied. “I have said to myself a thousand times and I should be happy if I were but as ignorant as my old neighbor; and yet it is a happiness which I do not desire.”

This reply of the Brahmin made a greater impression on Voltaire than anything that had passed. He almost concluded incorrectly that Ignorance was bliss.

But the truth behind this story was easily unraveled by Guruji with the power of Kundalini knowledge. Each human is evolving through different Chakras where accumulated Prarabdas start haunting him. In Mooladhara, which possesses the properties of the earth, he suffers from hardships related to the physical body. In Swadistana, he has trouble with his children and such as the Chakra is associated with progeny. In Mooladhara he becomes ambitious and wants to become famous or rich. In Anahata he strives to be a musician, an artist. In Vishiddhi, he wants to become a yogi and no matter how much efforts he puts, he seems to be going no where. These are all passing phases and once Kundalini crosses the Vishuddhi no more Prarabdas daunt an individual.

AnandaKatha

Many great disciples attended upon their Gurus and served them selflessly with full devotion. In my opinion, Ananda was the greatest among them. Though he had a powerful retentive memory, and the rare privilege of listening to the Buddha owing to his close association with Him, he did not strive for his self-realization as long as Buddha walked the earth lest that gave him any more importance than a humble servant of the Buddha.
For the first twenty years after his Enlightenment, the Buddha had no permanent attendant. The few temporary attendants were not very dutiful and their behavior was not highly commendable. They dropped His robe and bowl and as age started catching upon Him, the Buddha asked His disciples to choose one of them to always attend upon Him. All His disciples present offered their services but the Buddha declined their kind offers. Ananda was the only one who was standing in a corner silently and the Bhikshus understood that the Buddha had chosen him to be the attendant and requested him to offer his services. He consented provided the Buddha granted him the following eight boons. Though he called these boons, all of them were selfless and with the best intention to serve his master and his divine cause.
1. The Buddha should not give him any robes that He Himself receives.
2. The Buddha should not give him any food that He Himself receives.
3. The Buddha should not allow him to dwell in the same chamber.
4. The Buddha should not take him with Him wherever He is invited.
5. The Buddha should kindly go with him wherever He is invited.
6. The Buddha should kindly give him permission to introduce visitors that come from afar to see the Buddha.
7. The Buddha should kindly grant him permission to approach Him whenever any doubt should arise.
8. The Buddha should kindly repeat to him the discourses that were declared in his absence.
For the next twenty five years till the Buddha’s last moment, he followed Him like a shadow attending to all His needs with great love and care. Each night he used to go round Buddha’s chamber nine times with a staff and a torch to keep him awake and to prevent the Buddha’s sleep from being disturbed. He remembered Eight-two thousand texts from the Buddha and two thousand from other Bhikshus which formed the knowledge of Dhamma. Buddha’s final words to him were – “You have done merit in the past, Ananda. Quickly be free from Corruptions.” Immediately he put in strenuous effort and attained Arahantship to take a leading part in the First Council, which was composed only of Arahants. It is stated that he was the only disciple who attained realization free from the postures of sitting, standing, walking or sleeping.

A complete contrast to this great disciple has been Ma Anand Sheela (Sheela Birnstiel), who was the personal secretary of Osho, from 1981 to 1985. Having her roots in Gujarat, she joined Osho and soon married a wealthy American disciple and emigrated to the U.S. She wanted Osho to visit the U.S. and finally succeeding in persuading him in 1981 when he had a prolapsed disc.
Ma Yoga Laxmi, Osho’s first secretary had been busy finding a suitable property for Osho, and thus, when the medical emergency arose, the initiative had passed to Sheela who instigated the move to America. She claimed Osho might have died if he had stayed in India and would find the medical assistance he required in America in the event that he needed emergency surgery.
Sheela's husband bought, for US$5.75 million, a 64,229-acre ranch in Oregon, previously known as "The Big Muddy Ranch". His failing health and inspiration from inside made Osho spend more and more time in meditation and his social interactions reduced. As part of his withdrawal from public life, Osho gave Ma Anand Sheela power of attorney to handle the day to day affairs of the ashram and slowly she gained complete control of the commune. She built a custom made trailer complex with indoor swimming pool and other amenities for residence purpose. In the name of her master, she and other followers bought a large number of Rolls-Royce luxury cars, eventually numbering 93 and claimed notoriety. In 1983, Sheela announced that Osho had embarked on a silence vow to save the world from an impending catastrophe and would henceforth speak only with her. Many sannyasins expressed doubts about whether Sheela truly represented Osho. An increasing number of dissidents left Rajneeshpuram, citing disagreements with Sheela's autocratic leadership style.
The initial reactions of the host community ranged from hostility to tolerance, depending on the observer's distance from the ranch. Within a year of arriving, Sheela's followers had become embroiled in a series of legal battles with their neighbors, the principal conflict relating to land use. Sheela was uncompromising and behaved impatiently in dealing with the locals. In May of 1982, the residents of Rancho Rajneesh voted to incorporate the city of Rajneeshpuram on the ranch. The conflict with local residents escalated, with increasingly bitter hostility on both sides, and over the following years, the commune was subject to constant and coordinated pressures from various coalitions of Oregon residents. In 1983 Sheela’s team was about to loose the city election and hence masterminded a scheme to mildly poison the food of the residents of the Dalles county so that the citizens do not turn up for the vote.
Osho ended his period of public silence in October 1984, announcing that it was time for him to "speak his own truths." In July 1985, he resumed his daily public discourses in the commune's purpose-built, two-acre meditation hall. According to statements he made to the press, he did so against Sheela's wishes.
On 16 September 1985, Sheela and her entire management team suddenly left the commune for Europe. Osho held a press conference in which he labelled Sheela and her associates a "gang of fascists." He accused them of having committed a number of serious crimes and invited the authorities to investigate. The alleged crimes, which he stated had been committed without his knowledge or consent, included the attempted murder of his personal physician, poisonings of public officials, wiretapping and bugging within the commune and within his own home, and a bioterror attack on the citizens of The Dalles, Oregon, using salmonella. The subsequent investigation by the U.S. authorities confirmed these accusations and resulted in the conviction of Sheela and several of her lieutenants. The salmonella attack was noted as the first confirmed instance of chemical or biological terrorism to have occurred in the United States.
Osho claimed that because he was in silence and isolation, meeting only with Sheela, he was unaware of the crimes committed by the Rajneeshpuram leadership until Sheela and her "gang" left, and other sannyasins came forward to inform him
Following her acrimonious split from Rajneesh, She remarried a Swiss citizen before she was extradited back to the U.S. Sheela served almost three years of a twenty year sentence in prison. In 1988, she was released early for good behavior and deported. She now lives in Switzerland.

Do you remember the greatest lie told by our educators?

All of us have heard the story of the tortoise and hare race. The moral preached is “Slow and steady wins the race”. If you think about it a little, you will figure out that the actual moral is “Fast and unsteady looses the race”. This is a classical example of misinterpretation which almost all great scriptures and parables suffer from due to the limitation of the narrator. This parody is that it is accepted by the majority of the world.
Similarly when somebody says, “I want to see God”, what is it that he actually means? We all know that God is omnipresent which means God is every where and we are seeing him in each impression formed on our mind, but this friend of ours is not able to recognize him. But that still is not his problem. He has a preconceived notion of what God is – A physical form, a light, some glitter, some glamour, some fireworks… He is seeking a sort of spiritual entertainment or an experience out of the ordinary when he sees God. If God comes to him in any other form, he is not ready to accept him as He is because it the set idea in his mind that he is looking for and not actual God. Infinite God cannot be limited by a form.
Now when our friend says “I want salvation”, what does she mean? Most of the times she does not even know what the word ‘salvation’ means but she wants it badly. If we tell her that salvation means that she is forced to sit in one corner of the world and not move till the end of time she will suddenly say, “I can’t sit for more than 15 minutes, my legs start paining”. What she has experienced is that there are pains and unhappiness in the world. She wants to get over it. She has heard some where that by getting salvation one stop’s being affected by the pains. So what she really means is that she does not want the ups and downs of the material world.
There are lots of thoughts which require correct interpretation and only a Jnani will be able to interpret these correctly. Hence utilize the Jnana Yoga sessions of our Guruji in Satsangs, courses and our magazine. Dig into the past issues, his past speeches on tapes, CDs and enjoy the nectar of truth by hearing the right interpretations. This is one way for you to develop your Viveka (discrimination) and this will take your further in your spiritual quest.

Jai Gurudev

Only personal experience matters

When Lava and Kusha captured the horse, Lakshmana approached them and asked them to release it saying, “You don’t know how great the power of Sri Rama is!! When the dust of his feet touched Ahalya, she was transformed from a rock back to a woman”. They replied, “Oh Prince we know all that and more. It was the great sage Gautamas words that in Treta Yuga, Sri Rama would step on her. So is it the purity of Rama or the power of the words of the great sage that caused the transformation?” Lakshmana did not have an answer to this.
Similarly in spirituality your direct personal experience is the only thing that matters. You may have learnt all about the Chakras, the different types of Samadhis but unless you have experienced them your self they are all theory and of no avail. When some thing happens when you have your eyes closed, you have no idea if it was trance or sleep. You are confused if you had a vision or just a dream. Some people have a high self esteem and go about bragging that they have reached higher states of meditation. Some people with a low self esteem drag them selves down and conclude that they still do not know how to meditate. Only a realized person who has the direct experience of the truth will be able to judge on where everybody stands and all other perceptions on what individuals think will have no base in reality. Here we have to refer to a Sadguru to discriminate and help us progress from where we have reached. Each person has a different path and intermediary experiences can not be compared.

Changed Perspectives

Once upon a time long long ago people lived simple lives centered around agriculture. A few traders traveled around and there were a few more supporting trades. Sages lived isolated lives in ashrams and gained knowledge by their direct personal experiences. Young princes went to study with them. After learning preliminary techniques of concentrating their minds, they were initiated into different mantras. Only after rigorous practice and hard work they were able to master them and then convert simple arrows (Shastras) into mighty missiles (Astras). One such warrior who could face 10,000 soldiers on foot was called a Rathi and was given a chariot. They were ranked on how many missiles they could launch; how many soldiers they could fight and all this was common knowledge.
The Brahmins on the other hand dedicated themselves to the development of the religious and spiritual sides. They too indulged in rigorous penance and mastered mantras not for military purposes but to serve the society. There were a few people here and there who had possessed occult powers called Siddhis and all these had come by after lots of hard work and disciplined dedication. Some could move around in time and space, communicate with people in distant locations, heal people, change climate, bring rains, grant boons, demonstrate alchemy, teach by intuition, create and destroy life and such. But most of them went on experimenting with themselves, learning from their experience and reached a state of perfection. Hence these selfless people commanded tremendous respect and the common man had accepted them to be evolved beings and could count on them for the development of the entire mankind.
Now enter the modern man of 2009. If he were to go into that society and tell the commoners that a time would come when any idiot can talk to any idiot using a small equipment called a cell phone, any lazy bum can sit on his ass and see all the events that happens in all the corners of the world using a box called T.V, what would be their reaction? The converse problem limits today’s commoners from understanding them. Their society is built around the values of hard work and personal excellence that makes the worthy better than the commoner. Here a commoner possesses unruly power due to the advent of technology and all our society is built around the value of money. All these scientific developments of our current science are built around understanding one particular type of energy waves called Electromagnetic radiation. Sages tell us that there are 33 crores of such waves or vibrations and mankind has understood only a few of them. Now if the sages of the past had understood even a few more of these vibrations, their societies would have been much more advanced and built very differently. All that knowledge was forgotten and today we can just sit and imagine the extent of their progress or sit and brag that we are a far more advanced civilization with our blindfold of ignorance. To know the truth we have to change our perspective and may be then we can rediscover all the forgotten knowledge.

Osho’s recount of the night he attained enlightenment

After Buddha’s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, Osho was probably the next person who had documented his enlightenment experience under a special tree. He was a young man of 28 yrs at that time and was practicing serious meditation. There are his own words recorded in some of his speeches.
“The moment I entered the garden everything became luminous, it was all over the place – the benediction, the blessedness. I could see the trees for the first time – their green, their life, their very sap running. The whole garden was asleep, the trees were asleep. But I could see the whole garden alive, even the small grass leaves were so beautiful.
I looked around. One tree was tremendously luminous – the maulshree tree. It attracted me, it pulled me towards itself. I had not chosen it, God Himself has chosen it. I went to the tree, I sat under the tree. As I sat there things started settling. The whole universe became a benediction.”

There is no remedy for foolishness in any system of medicine

I have a cat. It is very lazy. I have never seen it hunt or do anything tiresome. It sometimes eats the flies that fall down below the lights. All the time it lies down and mews when it is hungry. If I put some rice on its plate it complains and demands for something else. If I pour some butter milk, it asks for milk. If I put some milk, it asks for cream. If I do not oblige, it mews around for a while and tries to find something else interesting to eat. If it does not find anything else, then it silently eats what ever is offered on the plate and goes back to sleep. Items fried in Ghee are its favorites. It is irregular with its timings and if I put its food on its plate and call it to eat, it does not bother to move until it is really hungry. Then ants and crows feast on its plate and later when the cat wakes up, it starts pestering me again. I think its sense of smell is underdeveloped as it stupidly moves without realizing that food has been served unless I put it on the plate in front of its eyes.
One day I put its usual quantity of milk on its plate during lunch time. The cat just drank half of it and went back to sleep. I do not like things to be wasted. So I dragged it to the cow shed and started explaining it how difficult it is to get milk. I showed it how the cow has to be fed, cleaned and milked. Then the milk has to be boiled. Only then can the butter and ghee produced. I told it, “If you do not value the industry and still want to drink milk, you can milk the cow yourself from tomorrow”.
Neighbor Kittu was passing by the cow shed and heard the last phrase. Kittu loved to gossip. When he reached the grocery store, he started “Did you know that Ananda, my neighbor has a wonderful cat? It has special intelligence and Ananda was able to teach it how to milk a cow”. The grocer said in disbelief, “No way!!” Kittu continued, “Yes really, I saw it with my own eyes. When I was walking towards the shop, both Ananda and the cat were at the shed and the cat filled the entire bucket as we were watching. Ananda was happy and told the cat to milk the cow by itself from tomorrow. I think the cat was a great yogi in its previous life and hence it remembers the past.”
My bored cat went back to sleep after my sermon and continued its vile ways. One noon, it was no where to be seen during the lunch time. It had probably found a frog or so in the garden. I did not like my cat eating meat. So in the evening when it returned, I angrily picked up the gunny bag over which it slept and moved it outside my house. I made a temporary shelter for it from rain and sun and told it, “If you can not follow the rules of my house, you have no right to stay in it. Take all your utensils and stuff and live outside from now. Then you can live the way you want.” I expected the cat to miss living with me and change its habits for the better.
The next day Kittu was telling somebody in the market place, “My suspicion was confirmed yesterday. The cat being a hermit wants to meditate and live by itself. So it has moved out of Ananda’s home and built a cottage for itself. I saw Ananda move all its stuff to the cottage and then kneel before it and request it to live the way it used to in the previous life. If you want you can come and see for yourself”. Many curious villagers came by the cat’s hermitage to check. They were initially skeptical but then when ever they saw the cat, it was always engaged in deep meditation with its eyes closed. They bowed down with respect. They wanted to ask Ananda more about the miracles that the cat performed but Ananda was always in silence and never spoke to the villagers.
Days rolled by and the cat slept in the shed and mewed at my door when ever it was hungry. It dared not to enter as I would chase it away. Out of compassion, I continued putting some food on its plate in the shed and it enjoyed sleeping there all the while. I saw that some villagers visited its shed and somebody even had placed some kumkum outside the shed. I was disappointed with my undisciplined cat and was least bothered about it. Though the rainy season had long started it had not rained this year. In the nights there was a stay male cat that started disturbing my sleep by its loud cries. I did not want the cat to lay a litter and create more trouble for me. So when the male cat came next night, I approached my cat and told it, “This male cat will just mate and run away. The responsibilities of raising the litter will the thrust down on you. Being as lazy as you are, you will not be able to bring the little ones properly. Do not expect that I will feed your family”. I tried shooing away the male cat but it would not comply. So I started making some loud noise with my puja gong and threw some twigs and fire sticks at the unwelcome visitor. The cat was persistent and I had to repeat my commotion. Drunkards returning home saw this but I did not care. Then it started raining and I retired for the night.
Kittu went early to the market square and told his friends, “You know the cat saved us from a big famine this year. Though it is an entire month since the rainy season started it had not rained a single drop. Last night Ananda married off his cat. I woke up to the sound of some puja and came out to investigate. I saw him chanting some divine mantras, make a fire and offer sacred sticks into it. The stray male cat from the village and the yogi were married and they took rounds around the fire. The Gods were pleased and sent the rains. Did any of you ever see a cloud in the sky till today?” Rumors also spread that the Gods attended the wedding, which was actually a divine sacrifice and then the five Gods appeared and granted a wish each to the cat and this time there were lots of witnesses to testify.
Meanwhile at the end of the rainy season, what I feared did happen. My idle cat gave birth to a litter with 5 kittens. The villagers started visiting the cat more often and started putting lots of food in the shed. Their frequent noise disturbed me and I started yelling at them.
Kittu said, “Ananda is angry because he is selfish and does not want to share his gifts with us. Each of the five kittens is an incarnation of the 5 base deities and will bring their owners tremendous luck.” Soon enough all the kittens were taken away by the villagers and Ananda thought “Good riddance”. But the stupid cat would not leave him.

-Ridiculed by AtmaAnanda

Yogabrastha

Sometimes you may wonder what happens if this life comes to an end before realization. The same doubt was cast on Arjuna’s mind and he asked the Lord, “The yoga that you mention is difficult to perfect. What happens if this body is cast off before the yogi has attained the goal? (Becomes yogabrastha)”.
The Lord pacifies his insecurity with the following explanation. There is no downfall here after to a person who has started treading on the path of yoga. Nothing bad will ever happen to him in this world or any other worlds. If his body is cast off, one of these two things will happen.
He will obtain the higher worlds such as the heaven which only the people with accumulated merits are entitled to. People craving such worlds will have had worked hard to gather the required merits during their stay in earth. But the yogi who lives his life selflessly without even thinking about the higher worlds will obtain it easily. He will enjoy there for a long period of time and will then be born again in a rich family with strong values. Though all the pleasures of the senses will be available to him, he will not get immersed in them and will start working beyond expectations of the fruits for his actions. He will be drawn to the spiritual path because of the training of his mind and will continue his Sadhana from the point where he left it previously.
If the person is of much more dispassionate and very meritorious then he will directly be born in a family of intelligent yogis and will lead an exceptionally religious life. But such births are rare are difficult to obtain. Swami Rama, Paramahamsa Yogananda and Swami Satyananda are some such examples of recent times.
This is the promise made by Krishna to all the aspirants who will ever tread the path of yoga. We are offered this protection and there is nothing more to fear. Guruji has also repeated this so many times. If we change towns in our mundane lives, our kids do not restart our education from the beginning. Similarly in spiritual life, aspirants will continue to progress from the previous lives and will never lose anything.
But if the aspirant applies total effort, with the support of the Sanskaras of previous lives, it is possible to experience the results in this very birth. The yogi can become complete and released from all the sins of the past and reach the highest state immediately. Hence Krishna appeals Arjuna to become a yogi in the current life as that is the most superior way.
-AtmaAnanda

How stressed are you?

Urban life is full of stress and tension and most people do not even know that they are affected by it. Here is a 5 minute exercise that will help you diagnose your situation and help you understand what you need to do.
Sit in a comfortable position and take a couple of deep breaths. Close your eyes and try to think about nothing. Try to keep your mind blank and discard any thought that comes up. Breathe normally and start counting your breaths till you reach 100. Try this once before you read further to help gauge yourself. Within a few seconds you will start remembering your pending errands. You have a meeting with such and such person, you need to prepare something, you need to pick up or drop off something, you need to buy something, you need to tell somebody something and thoughts like these start pestering your mind. This is natural and a result of tension. Try not to follow the chain of thoughts and keep focusing on completing the count. Most of the people who do not meditate will have one of the following experiences.
1. You will be drifting back and forth between thoughts and finally manage to complete the count. You may not be so sure about your count though.
2. You will drift away half way in between and do not remember what happened.
3. You will become restless and feel that you are wasting your time when you have so many things to do. You actually discard the practice and try to do something to complete the tasks ahead of you.
Here is how to interpret your experience. If your experience matches case 3, it means that you are extremely stressed out and need to make changes to your lifestyle immediately. You may need to take a step back and relax, take a vacation, resort to yoga or any other therapy. Your mind and body can not take this kind of abuse for long and it is important that you take a remedial step. If not then the stress that is accumulated will come back as a mental break down or some sort of a disease, a cancer that will mar the rest of your existence. If your experience matches case 2, then it still means that you are stressed out and are taking more than what you can handle at this point. Though you do not need to get admitted right away, you need to slow down or increase your internal capacity somehow. Do not expect that you will deteriorate into case 3 before something bad happens. You can breakdown all of a sudden if you are in this stage for long. On the other hand if you are a case 1, then you have some stress in your life. A little bit of stress is required in everybody’s life to make you progress. If this absconds then you will not make any progress in your life. You will be a satisfied and contended being. Earth is one planet where you can not be satisfied. Everybody is working to better their position either materially or spiritually. The scriptures say that there are other beings like the angels, presiding deity, Gandharvas who exist in other planes who are completely contended in their duty and do not evolve any further. Humans on the other hand are gifted with this discontentment that makes them progress and eventually evolve their consciousness to reach the state of the supreme. But if you are drifting away too often, you are taking too much tension from your work load. A little bit of yoga and relaxation techniques will surely help you improve your productivity and quality of life.
Now if you are a meditator, your experience may match one of the following.
1. You are able to complete the count without any interruption and able to keep your full attention on your breath.
2. You loose track of the count and drift into a sort of semi-consciousness. It seems that you fell asleep but it is not actually a sleep. You wake up fresh and sometimes exactly after the duration of time that you intended to sit in this practice. Sometimes the count may be progressing sub-consciously
3. You actually fall asleep, start dreaming, your poster collapses.
If you fall asleep, then it means that you are physically too tired. Or may be you are just learning how to sit in meditation. You have a long way to go. You need to learn more techniques and need lots of practice. If your experience matches case 1, then it means you have mastered concentration (dharana) which is the sixth of the eight steps of Patanjali. You are able to control your mind to some degree and are productive in your work. Ordinary people will have a dispersed mind and will not be able to concentrate on their work completely. Their mind will be recalling some event in the past or planning for some event in the future rather than focusing their complete attention on the task at hand. So their productivity is not at the best possible level and there is scope for betterment. But if your experience matches case 2, then you are reaching a state called laya. Opinion is divided among the spiritual community about this. One school of thought that Shankaracharya, Patanajali and others subscribe to say that this has to be avoided at all cost. Though there will be a spiritual communion with the supreme you will not be aware of it and will have no control over it. So they categorize this state equal to sleep. Now Astavakra and others feel that this practice is the highest yoga. In this state of ignorance, the individual consciousness will wake up one fine day and will be able to tap into the supreme. When one reaches this state, he is said to be realized.
If you are stressed, then you need to inculcate some type of stress relief exercise into your routine. You can walk for a while, play some music, do some gardening or something that works for you based on your temperament. My favorite technique is to perform a yoga nidra. When Swami Satyananda was teaching this in the western world somebody asked if everybody in India practices this. He quickly replied, Indian population is primarily rural. People may practice some yoga for their spiritual progress. They may be poor but their lives are well balanced. They do not need to practice any stress relief. You need to. That was in the 1980’s. Now the western lifestyle has spread to the entire urban world.

Dharmasankata-1

Q: Is it OK for us to hire some domestic help? It is a different case if one is sick or old. But a healthy person who is quite capable of doing his chores, should he hire a helper? A driver, for his car just because he has the money to afford it? All great Yogis have shown by example that one has to do his work himself. But there is a counter argument that some people put to hire them. All people are not created with equal talents. So if we do not hire these less talented people as domestic servants, they will not be able to find employment and they may turn to negative paths or live in abject poverty. Indirectly we are helping them to have a better life and earn their living while engaging them in some productive activity and also get our work done. How much strength lies in this argument?

Guruji: Look at nature. Each entity does its work by itself without complaining. The Sun does not say “I am on vacation”. The rain does not tell “Water the plants for me”. The Earth does not say “Give me a couple of pushes so that I can keep rotating”. The tree does not say “Give some shadow to the travelers on my behalf as I am tired today”. Each entity does its work by itself and does it every day without fail and without complaining. God feeds the tree growing on the ledge on the top of a dry hill. So he will take care of providing for each person he has created. You do not have to play God and try to provide for your servants. No person should make another person serve him. There is God in each and every person and once you start seeing this you will not be able to allow him to clean up your mess. The argument that you are helping the maid is a moot point, a justification for your laziness, an excuse for your incompetence.
Devraha Baba was a great saint popular in the North. Some say that he was 600 yrs old and others that he was 800 yrs old. When I went to meet him during Kumbhamela, he was himself carrying the big pieces of wood and erecting his “manch”. If some devotee offered to help, he used to say – “Door Javo – Hamra kam Ham kudh karengey(Get away – I do my work myself)”. He used to build his own wooden tree house or platform and bless all devotes by placing his feet on their head. When I was working in Trivandrum, there was a centurion, a widower who used to live by himself. He was a retired commissioner, a vedic pundit and a very pious man. He used to wake up every morning at 4:00, do his Sadhana, cook for himself, clean his small hut and wash his clothes. Though his children lived near by, he used to eat at their homes only on special occasions and when he fell ill which was very seldom. When ever he heard that I am in the area, he used to run to where I was and engage in Satsang. He used to say that he does all his work so that he can be independent. He lived this way till the day he died. Sadhaks have to stay fit and only then can they engage in Sadhana. These simple daily chores flex and tone our body and keep it fit. If we stop doing these, gradually we will lose the ability and become the slave of the machine or the servant that does these work for us. That is you grow dependent and that is not good.

10 steps to Realization

There are many paths to self-realization. Some people find a path easier than the rest based on their Gunas. An aspirant has to experiment a little and find out what works best for him at his point of evolution. Bhakti Yoga works well for people who can surrender themselves completely to God. The catch is that no body teaches you how to surrender. Jnana Yoga works well for those who have a contemplative nature but nobody can teach you how to contemplate. Raja Yoga is a disciplined and methodic approach. Pranayama is one of the ways by which one can attain realization. By doing Nadi Shodha Pranayama alone one can reach the highest possible states. This is a path in Raja Yoga which works only for people with self-discipline and lots of will power. One should be able to wake up every day at the same time, sleep at the same time, eat at the same time and do your practices everyday at the same time in order to succeed in this. There are 10 simple steps which are listed below. If you are confused reading different scriptures and just need some specific instructions to practice and build your experiences this article is a great find. This article is self-sufficient and is all that you need to guide you till you see the light at the end of the tunnel. But be warned, this is a long journey and will take you years and hard practice to perfect. This article forms a road map to your final destination but you have to walk the path and gain all the experiences and this requires lots of will power. So pray Almighty to help you.

Preliminaries:
Nasagra Mudra: This is the standard mudra used to alternate the flow of breath through the nostrils. Hold your right hand in front of your face with the pointing finger and middle finger resting on the eyebrow center. Close the right nostril with the thumb and left nostril with the ring finger and little finger. Resting the 2 fingers on Ajna induces brahmacharya. A variation for others is to fold the 2 unused fingers. Keep your shoulders parallel and head straight. When you practice this for longer durations, you may place your left hand under your right elbow to support it when you feel the fatigue. You can use the left hand and perform the mudra for a few seconds while your right hand rests and recovers. But slowly with practice you will be able to increase the duration for which you can hold the mudra.

Nadi shodha Pranayama
This is probably the most important pranayama and here is how it is performed. Use Nasagra mudra. Inhale through right nostril and exhale through left. Then inhale through left nostril and exhale through right. This is one round. Repeat 12 rounds. Inhale and exhale for equal duration. Visualize the path taken by the breath forming a triangle with its apex at the eyebrow center. Let the flow of breath be a steady stream like the oil flowing into the wick of the lamp. Make sure that there is no sound when you breathe. You can practice this anytime when your stomach is empty. The best time is early morning between 4:00 am and 6:00 am after you have completed some asanas.
Benefits: Helps the psychic body. This balances the ida and pingala nadis and cleans the mind and sets it ready for meditation.

Once you have started to perform this on a regular basis, you can take up this as a Sadhana and then the results are all dependent on the ratios. Here are the 10 ratios

1:1
1:2
1:1:1
1:2:2
1:3:2
1:4:2
1:1:1:1
1:2:2:2
1:3:2:2
1:4:2:2

Stage I: Just inhaling and exhaling
This stage seems to be very easy and beginners tend to be overambitious. However, proper execution of the sequence with a steady breath is more important than reaching big numbers. This step forms the foundation stone based on which your Sadhana will be built. This stage is sufficient for people who practice this pranayama for good health and fitness.

Step I (1:1): Breathe in and out for 4 seconds. This should be effortless and steady. Do not let your concentration drift or your mind to wander. Keeping track of the count is important as that trains your to reach the state of Samadhi with full consciousness. If you do not heed to this point, you may enter a sleep kind of state called laya which lacks the awareness attained in higher states of consciousness. Once you are able to complete 12 rounds without any difficulty slowly raise the duration to 6, 8 10, 12, 16, 20, 24 second. If you are older than 60 or have health problems stop at this. Others can increase their durations to 28, 32, 36, 40, 48, 52, 56, 64, 72, 80 seconds gradually. Do not hurry and increase your durations just after hitting a complete round. Practice for a few days. For higher durations repeating 4 weeks in each level is ideal. The higher steps seem to be more difficult but will facilitate you to move faster to higher levels in the advanced ratios.

Step II (1:2): Breathe in for 4 seconds and breathe out for 8 seconds. Take all the precautions mentioned in Step 1 and gradually increase the inhalation duration to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds. The exhalation duration will be double of this and is more difficult than inhalation. So proceed only when your breath is steady for all 12 rounds. Advanced practitioners can increase their inhalation for 24, 28, 32, 36 and 40 seconds gradually. The ratio of 12:24 is regarded special and has a soothing effect on the heart and the mind. Try to hit this ratio if you are practicing this pranayama for general health.

Stage II: With Antar Kumbhaka
Here we introduce inner breath retention called Antar Kumbhaka. Once you have fully inhaled, close both the nostrils with your fingers and then exhale completely. Hitting the exhalation duration to maintain the correct ratio is important. The retention should not be opened with a gasp at any point and it should not be too difficult. If you do not heed to this advice you may run into severe health problems. Kumbhaka is a rocket to lift up your consciousness very fast but it should be in the right direction. You may have to consult an experienced yoga instructor and get suggestions to change your diet and lifestyles if you run into problems. Do not hurry and do not proceed before you have solved your problems or you will be just hurting yourself.

Step III (1:1:1): Breathe in, retain and breathe out for 4 seconds. This should be effortless and steady. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds gradually. Advanced practitioners can increase their inhalation for 24, 28, 32, 36 and 40 seconds gradually.

Step IV (1:2:2): Breathe in for 4 seconds but retain the breath inside for 8 seconds and breathe out for 8 seconds. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds gradually. Advanced practitioners can increase their inhalation for 24, 28 and 32 seconds gradually. Heed to your inner guidance which may suggest some changes to aid your practice. You can perform Jalandhara Bandha and Moola Bandha during the Kumbhaka

Step V (1:3:2): This is only for advanced practitioners. Breathe in for 4 seconds. Retain the breath inside for 12 seconds. Breathe out for 8 seconds. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24 seconds gradually. You will start having different experience at this point. You may find your head light or dizzy at first but slowly the flow of prana will become evident. Different siddis may manifest at this point but do not be tempted to use them and get deviated from the path of reaching your final goal. Before releasing the Antar Kumbhaka, you can breathe in a bit and start exhaling. This releases the lock and will make the exhalation smooth.

Step VI (1:4:2): This is only for advanced practitioners and is the last step in this Stage. Breathe in and out for 4 seconds. Retain the breath inside for 16 seconds. Breathe out in 8 seconds. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24 seconds gradually. You can lie down in Shavasana at the end of the practice or if you feel tired and decide to abandon your session in the middle. Three ratios are important according to the scriptures. Breathing in for 12, 16 and 20 seconds in this step are called Adhama, Madyama and Uttama Kumbhaka Pranayamas and should be perfected. Once the durations of the sessions increases beyond one hour, it will become difficult to practice this regularly and in one sitting. But this discipline has to be maintained for success. Do not get disheartened and abandon the Sadhana.

Stage III: With Bahya Kumbhaka
Here we introduce outer breath retention called Bahya Kumbhaka along with Antar Kumbhaka. Once you have fully exhaled, close both the nostrils with your fingers. Hitting the exhalation duration to maintain the correct ratio is most difficult and most important. The retention should not be opened with a gasp at any point and it should not be too difficult. Start this Stage only after you have practiced Nadi Shodha for a reasonably long time and your breathing is steady. The effects of your pranayama will now be felt and your breathing pattern in normal life will be different. By the time your reach this step, your inhalation duration will be less than your exhalation.

Step VII (1:1:1:1): Breathe in, retain, breathe out and retain for 4 seconds. This should be effortless and steady. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds gradually. Advanced practitioners can increase their inhalation for 24, 28, 32, 36 and 40 seconds gradually. You can perform Jalandhara Bandha and Moola Bandha during the Antar Kumbhaka and add Udhyana Bandha during Bahya Kumbhaka.
The duration for the complete session will start increasing a lot at this point and one has to be extremely patient in completing this. It is a good idea to track the number of times that you have completed a ratio completely for 12 rounds in a note book and track your progress. Remember that you have to practice a ratio successfully for 4 weeks before moving over to the next level in the advanced ratios. Chances are that the remaining steps are revealed to you intuitively by the time your reach this step and you may never need to read the remaining of the article.

Step VIII (1:2:2:2): Breathe in for 4 seconds. Retain the breath inside for 8 seconds. Breathe out for 8 seconds. Retain the breath outside for 8 seconds. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds gradually. Advanced practitioners can increase their inhalation for 24, 28 and 32 seconds gradually. With Bhaya kumbhakas, you will start having different set of experiences and mind gets drawn into a state of blankness. But remember to keep up your counting and only after completing 12 rounds mark your session a success. Before releasing the Bahya Kumbhaka, you can breathe out a bit and start inhaling. This releases the lock and will facilitate smooth inhalation.


Step IX (1:3:2:2): Breathe in for 4 seconds. Retain the breath inside for 12 seconds. Breathe out for 8 seconds. Retain the breath outside for 8 seconds. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds gradually. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds gradually. Practicing Bahya Kumbhaka will enable you to continue your ratios in higher elevations. If you do not practice this sufficiently and move to the Himalayas, you will soon find out that you have to step backwards and take up much lower ratios than in the plains. Higher levels can be reached only with the help of God and sincere and dedicated practice. Different kinds of experiences manifest as you go through each of these levels.

Step X (1:4:2:2): This is only for advanced practitioners and is the last step in this Stage. Breathe in for 4 seconds. Retain the breath inside for 16 seconds. Breathe out for 8 seconds. Retain the breath outside for 8 seconds. Increase the inhalation to 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20 seconds gradually. Once you reach 20 seconds slowly raise your repetitions to 108 times. You will know all that you need to know before you reach the end of this step.

Good Luck!!
-AtmaAnanda