Jivana Nadi (The River of Life)

Four important things i learnt from my guru during my pilgrimage trip to Tiruvannamalai (see here to know why the place is so great for Hindus), can be summarized as :-

* Practicing Affectionate Detachment.
* Clearing the Subconscious Basement.
* Being like the River water.
* What does it mean when people say "Nobody Understands me".

Practicing Affectionate Detachment

Affectionate detachment is stronger than any attachment could possibly be, because attachment is created through unfulfilled desire, salted and peppered with fear. Fear of loss, fear of the unexpected, fear that life may not have much more to offer than what has already been offered, fear of old age, fear of harm, fear of accident -- these are the fears which salt and pepper the unfulfilled desires. This is attachment.

To be affectionately detached -- that is a power. That is a wisdom. That is a love greater than any emotional love, a love born of understanding, a love that merges you into the river of life and allows actinic force to flow within you so that you realize God.

There is a great wisdom in cultivated affectionate detachment. Let go of the past. Let go of the future. Be a being right now. Being detached does not mean running away from life or being insensitive. It makes us extremely sensitive. When we have the ability to let go, we are warmer, more friendly, more wholesome, more human and closer to our family and friends.



Subconscious Basement

I liken the subconscious mind to a basement. Those of you who have lived in the same house for a number of years have observed the following: as life progresses in the home, old things make way for the new, and the old things invariably are put into the basement. The basement is likened to the subconscious mind; the main floor, to the conscious mind. If one is putting too many things too fast into the basement and is too busy enjoying the new things passing through the conscious mind into the subconscious basement, there is no time to keep the basement in order.

You can plainly see that we have to go into the subconscious basement and straighten it out, if need be, by letting go and becoming free. That's easy to say. It's a little more difficult to do. Why? Because the basement took time to fill, and it takes time to clean. If we were to straighten out the subconscious basement too fast, that would not be good. It would be going against a natural law. It would be like pouring hot water on plants, as they do commercially, to make them bloom quickly. We must not force natural laws, so we take time in our spiritual unfoldment. The more time you are willing to take, the less pressure you have on yourself and the faster you will attain a permanent enlightenment.

"Nobody Understands Me"

In practicing affectionate detachment, we are learning to live in the here and now, right in the moment. We are awakening the power of direct cognition, the power that enables us to understand what happens, when it happens and why it happens.We are tuning into the river of life, the great actinic flow. This river flows directly from the essence of being through the subconscious basement and the conscious-mind main floor, creating life's experiences. Along the way, our cognition of these experiences completes the cycle of its continual flow. That is what we have to learn to tune into. All of our higher teachings give us that wisdom. It is a great step to learn it intellectually and to be able to talk about it, but once that step has been taken, it is not a great step anymore.

This wisdom must first be applied at home, then at work. Then it has to be applied among all of your acquaintances and friends. Everyone should understand you and about you, and if you feel there is someone close to you who does not understand you, that signifies that the part of yourself that this person represents does not understand what you think they do not understand. If someone who is close to you does not understand your inner nature, you do not understand your inner subconscious yourself. Why? Because you have only intellectually grasped certain things; you have not fully realized these concepts. He, the friend, as a reflection of yourself, therefore, will not quite grasp your studies or your concepts. As soon as you understand yourself, by having purified yourself, you can explain your realization to your friends in a way they will understand.

Those who say "Well, nobody understands me. I feel all alone on the path" are going through a period in which they have memorized everything but understand very little and therefore cannot explain or convince their fellow man of these great truths due to the fact that their subconscious basement is still full. When we only learn intellectually and have not put dharma into practice, our subconscious is still cluttered by uncognized memories.



Being like the River Water

Let's look again at the river of life as it flows into the sea, and again relate that to ourselves and see ourselves letting go of the river banks, merging ourselves into this river, flowing with it and realizing ourselves as the essence of life. Let us not worry about the past ever again. Do not even think about the past. Face everything that comes up in the light of the present, not in the darkness of the past.



Be like the river water. Water flows freely anywhere, easily finding its way around rocks and trees. Be pliable in your life, moving in rhythm with life. Let go of everything that blocks the river of life's energy. Watch your thinking and be careful of your thoughts. Judge every action that you make, judge every word you speak, with this law: "Is it true? Is it kind? Is it helpful? Is it necessary?" Become your own kind judge and make each second a day of judgment, for each second is really a day if you live life fully. If you live completely each second, you will experience many days inside each twenty-four hours.

Be free from life's attachments and don't allow any more negative attachments to occur in your life. Loosen yourself -- be free. Attachments bring all sorts of complications. Freedom brings no complications at all. So, that is what we have to do, recreate our lives each second. Become affectionately detached and manifest a greater love through action. Selfless service to mankind makes you free in the world of mortals. Measure yourself objectively with the river of life and merge with it into the sea of life. Let your service to mankind begin at home and radiate out to the world. Begin at home, with those closest to you, before venturing out among friends and strangers. Let your example be your first teaching. Be free from the past; abide in the present; detach yourself from the future; and live in the eternal now.

Close your eyes and visualize a river flowing into the sea, and see yourself holding on to the bank of the river, and the river flowing on past you. Now let go of the bank of the river and flow down with the river and merge into the sea of life. Feel yourself, right at this instant, living in the here and now. Holding on to the river bank, we hold the consciousness of time and space. Holding on to the banks of the river of life is to recreate within you fear, worry, doubt, anxiety and nervousness. Detach yourself from the banks of the river and again be free. Love the banks as you pass, with a love born of understanding, and if you have no understanding of the bank, study your attachments until you do.


Learn to concentrate the mind so that you can study not from books, but from observation, which is the first awakening of the soul. Learn to study by practice. Learn to study by application. Become a student of life and live life fully, and as you merge into the sea of actinic life, you will realize that you are not your mind, your body or your emotions. You will realize that you are the complete master of your mind, your body and your emotions.

Jivanasya Prayojanam (The purpose of life )

Once you have realized that Self realization is the the ultimate goal of your life, go on living your normal life, putting attention and concentration in every single work that you do, doing a little more than you think you can, finish each project that you start, finish it well beyond your expectations, this process of channelizing every desire towards the final goal is called "transmuting". Transmute every desire towards the final goal. Once the tremendous force of desire is transmuted. The perspective is changed. We see ourself as an immortal being, and we work consistently with our lifestyle, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. Each decision that we make is an easier decision to make, and each reaction that we face, we face it joyfully. Each meditation that we hold is more profound than the last, and the spiritual being, the soul body, begins to merge with the physical body, as the elements of the instinct and the elements of the intellect that have been supreme life after life after life begin to give up and transmute their energies into the immortal body of the soul. This way the willpower gets awakened.

Remember, the lifestyle that we now have was programmed for us by mothers, fathers, religious leaders, teachers, people that we had just met along the way, and good friends. It's not a particularly good lifestyle in which to hold the perspective that we're an immortal being. It's a great lifestyle to hold the perspective that we're a temporal being, and we're only here a few years and then we die.

To develop a whole new lifestyle takes thought. Our desire has to be transmuted into doing that. In the ordinary lifestyle of human consciousness, our desires generally are for 'things', for emotional experiences, for intellectual knowing. And that's all good, but they're not organized. We have to organize the tremendous power of desire so that it's transmuted, and we desire the realization of the Self more than anything else. Then you'll have enough desire left over to get things, to get happiness and to get all the getting that humans want.

(See awareness as a lotus flower. We'll look at the mud as being the instinct, we'll look at the water as being the intellect and we'll look at the air as superconsciousness - Gurudeva)

Handling each experience

"Balance comes from understanding the effect of the emotional body upon the physical, and the physical body upon the emotional." - Gurudeva

The more experiences we can have during a lifetime and approach those experiences in a positive way, the more we begin to crush out the instinctive elements, the more we begin to mold the intellect so it is like the superconscious mind rather than being like the instinctive area of the mind, the more we can begin to mold the physical atoms so that they become closer attuned to the spiritual forces emanating from the soul body. The more experiences we can have and face those experiences positively, the faster we evolve. The fewer experiences we have, the slower we evolve. The knowing of how to handle each experience that comes to us in our lifetime comes from the soul. It's our superconscious self.

The instinctive mind will want to run after certain experiences and be repelled by other experiences. It is the area of duality, of likes and dislikes. The instinctive mind will react and resent experiences of a certain nature. The intellectual mind will rationalize other types of experiences that happen to us during a lifetime, argue them out and try to find out reasons why. The superconscious mind of the soul will know the reason why. It will come in an intuitive flash. If it doesn't, it doesn't matter anyway.

The spiritual body of you, which is permanent, has always remained constant. It has always been constant because it's directly in tune with the constant central source of all energy of the universe. This one source of energy feeds through your spiritual body and out through the intellectual sheath, the astral or emotional sheath, and the physical body. So, identify yourself as the inner being. Never see yourself as an outer being. Then experience won't be reacted to. It will be understood from a mountaintop consciousness. Then experience won't be sought for for the enjoyment of the experience. The Self will be sought for, and the experience will be part of the path to you.

Waiting for intuitive flashes

Now, when the mystic wants to understand his series of experiences, he does not analyze himself. He doesn't go through the emotion of "Why did this happen to me?" "What did I do to deserve that?" "What did this experience come to me for? I want to know the reason, and only when I know the reason can I go on." This binds him to the intellectual area of the mind. He lives his experiences in the consciousness of the eternity of the moment, and if an intuitive flash, a mountaintop consciousness, comes to him where he can see how he fit into the experiential pattern, he accepts it and he knows it's right, because it permeates him so dramatically, from the top of his head right through his entire body.

The mystic waits for these intuitive flashes, and he links one up with another. But he doesn't flow his awareness through the intellectual mind and spend time in that area to try to analyze each happening or each reaction to try to justify it, to excuse it or to find out why it has happened. He doesn't do that. Why? Because the soul, the superconscious mind, doesn't work that way.

***** The journey of life *****

The black-footed Garuda bird flies across the sky; a black-hued serpent dies in a deep well, all unseen. So, stop bragging of your greatness, O heart! Be like the river that merges into the wavy ocean.

Tirumantiram 2513

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I Encounter Loneliness - Goal being distant

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I Encounter Beauty, Joy, re-union

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Hours and hours of lonely travelling

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Not knowing whats happening

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Meeting partners/ companions

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Only to be parted

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Full of bumps, ups and downs

making me learn .... as i struggle .....

And the journey still goes on and on ....

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The importance of Sleep

Upon passing into a state of sleep, the body's five positive currents are systematically depolarized; this allows the Ego to pass from the physical plane into the sub-superconscious regions. When the body is fully recuperated, the currents are again polarized, thus pulling the Ego back into the physical body, hence the conscious plane.

When in a physical body, the conscious mind/plane is always the home base - the headquarters. The five currents hold individual awareness or Ego in the conscious mind. Therefore, individual awareness can soar into the sub-superconscious regions and entertain great input, knowledge, direction for one's future, understanding of the karmas that have been gone through, as well as creativity that can later be manifest on the conscious plane. But as the aphorism says, once the body is fully recuperated from a state of sleep, individual awareness is now again aware of the conscious plane, which is the external world. All of the sub-superconscious input from the various regions is not forgotten, but is not remembered, and will slowly infiltrate from the sub-superconscious to the subconscious mind and manifest in the conscious mind intelligence at a much later time.

The aphorism states that "the body's five positive currents are systematically depolarized." This implies that they can be depolarized in an unsystematic way. To have them systematically depolarized, pranayama, hatha yoga and japa should precede the state of sleep. It also implies that the state of sleep is a state of deep meditation for the unfolded person. This does not happen for everyone. This happens for the one who prepares himself to go into that kind of deep sleep, who is in a state in which the five currents can be systematically depolarized. The five currents are the five winds of the body.

Depolarized means that they all rest. It's like nikashum. When you are doing nikashum, you are withdrawing all the five winds into simshumbisi, the center of your being. Depolarizing means bringing together that which is naturally apart. In the Shum language this is called nikashum. The energy of these five functions would be drawn into the sushumna current and enliven kundalini activity somewhat, just enough for individual awareness to flow into subsuperconscious inner worlds of creative intelligence, absorbing all the knowledge which they at that time could contain. This then is held as a deposit, along with other intelligence experienced within the subsuperconscious mind, slowly infiltrating through the subconscious to the conscious mind.


When the Ego "wakes up" from sleep, the physical body should be immediately put into action. To go back into the state of sleep immediately after naturally becoming conscious causes the five positive currents to be unconventionally depolarized -- the Ego passes into the subsubconscious regions.

The mystical edict has always been, "Wake up, get up." Any time during the night the mystic wakens, he sits up, stands up immediately, bringing himself totally into the conscious mind, turns on the light, moves the body, divorces individual awareness, his Ego, from whatever had been experienced during sleep. Then, as a conscious being, fully aware of head, arms, legs and the functions of the physical body, he puts the body to sleep again, to systematically depolarize and go back into the inner state he was drawn away from for one reason or another. The aphorism explains the penalties for neglecting this personal discipline, and, I might add, they double in effects once the discipline is known, because you know you should do something and you don't do it; that amount of extra energy will add in unconventionally depolarizing the currents. This means that some of the five currents give way half way and others will give way fully, and -- as they merge together during this time into individual awareness -- will conjure up the sub of the subconscious mind, give it strength and power to manifest at a later time. The sub of the subconscious mind should not be conjured up in this way, lest the manifestations not be welcome in the experiential pattern of the individual's life. There are other sadhanas to handle the sub of the subconscious mind.

It should be embarrassing to any devout Saivite, especially one who has been initiated, to not wake up with "Aum Namah Sivaya" in the mind. Traditional practices of basic japa are to fall asleep chanting "Aum Namah Sivaya" and wake up starting off on the same syllable one left off on when going to sleep. Therefore, to quickly heal the embarrassment, the devotee should, upon awakening, mentally or verbally say, "Aum Namah Sivaya," or "Sivaya Namah Aum," bringing the mind back to normal consciousness.

In a state of sleep, one must know that he himself behaves as he would in an awakened, conscious state. The mystic knows there is no state of unconsciousness, and that the same laws apply, the yamas, niyamas and pancha nitya karmas, whether one is awake or asleep. Whatever one does, even in a dream -- lying, cheating or stealing, deceiving, coercing or mutilating -- is a cause of karmas or forces to be re-experienced, re-enacted at a later time. Right thought, right speech, right action must hold through daily life and dream life. Those who do not have proper dreams, or who have violent dreams, should never be taught meditation, outside of group meditation, lest the power of meditation itself manifest their hidden unruly nature.

The guru, having all-pervasive consciousness, which is superconsciousness, is simultaneously within the subsuperconscious of all shishyas at every given moment or every space of time -- in their waking states, in their dream states, guiding, loving and protecting.


Ruchy from California sent the below link which talks about the problems caused due to lack of sleep in night shift workers and by people in general who sleep late nights.
http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/night_shift_cancer.html
Thank you Ruchy for this link !

Meditation - Courtesy -> Times of India

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Quotes i liked today

When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
- Confucious

Past and Future are a duality of which Present is the reality. The now-moment alone is eternal and real.
- Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei...

Who ranks as the highest? One who does not harm anything. One who never retaliates. One who is always at peace regardless of the other person's disposition.
- Buddha

You are now in control of your life. You see, the ego is never in control. The ego is controlled by wishes for comfort and convenience on the part of the body, by demands of the mind, and by outbursts of the emotions. But the higher nature controls the body and the mind and the emotions. I can say to my body, "Lie down there on that cement floor and go to sleep," and it obeys. I can say to my mind, "Shut out everything else and concentrate on this job before you," and it's obedient. I can say to my emotions, "Be still, even in the face of this terrible situation," and they are still. It's a different way of living. The philosopher Thoreau wrote: If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps he hears a different drummer. And now you are following a different drummer--the higher nature instead of the lower.
- Peace Pilgrim

If we clearly apperceive (meaning - comprehend in terms of past experiences ) the difference Between direct apprehension (ability to understand) in Whole-mind And relative comprehension (intellectual ability to understand) by reasoning in mind divided into subject-and-object, All the apparent mysteries will disappear. For that will be found to be the key Which unlocks the doors of incomprehension ( inability to understand ).
- 'Posthumous Pieces' by Wei Wu Wei

What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.
-Confucius

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
-Albert Einstein

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

-Confucius

Play your part in the comedy, but don't identify yourself with your role!

-Wei Wu Wei

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts. Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride.

- Sutta Nipata

Locating "will" through feeling

Sleep is a cleanser for the subconscious mind. By the use of willpower this can be done slowly or quickly.

When you sleep, you are cleaning out the subconscious mind and educating it to face the experiences that you must go through as you evolve. This is done automatically, but you can help it by the use of your will. Everyone has willpower, but few know that they have any more than a certain amount. It is really unfair to tell them they have unlimited powers, because they have not the consciousness of how to awaken them, and it only leads to a subconscious frustration unless you give the key along with the statement. This is the key, and when you practice it you will realize that you are not a mere man in a physical body. You are a being that has unlimited power within: the power to acquire, to give, to understand, to love, to remember, to be magnetic and to be happy. This power is yours. It is locked up within you, only to be realized through the conscious use of the will. The will is a thing, just like your body, your mind and emotions when you learn to separate and control them. The will you can also control, once you locate it through feeling. This feeling you must search yourself for and try to locate where it is and trace it to what it controls and weigh it as to how much you use to accomplish different missions. You do this through concentration -- just plain thinking, coupled with feeling.

This is your birthright, your heritage. When you grasp this will from within, your consciousness will unfold before your vision. And during sleep you will speed up the process of purification and build strength daily until you fall into a conscious sleep.

2nd Visit to Kalahasti

Srikalahasti, the great place of piligrimage where Lord Shiva's devotees came into light, it was a spider (sri), a snake (kala) and an elephant(hasti). The pooja went well and we (me and my parents) were seated close to Lord Shiva in the form of a Shiv Ling and Rahu and Ketu in front of Him. Sri Kalahasti is exactly 300 km from Bangalore. 1 hour drive from Tirupati.

The place has now become very commercialized. The priests ask us to constantly offer dakshina (money). The priest who conducts dosha nivarana puja even demands a dakshina of 200 Rs which is supposed to be a voluntary contribution. Scriptures say that such poojas help the soul in clearing impediments and past karmas, but seeing the money minded priests there, one begins to wonder if its all a hoax.

Coming to the good part, I had a very good darshan of the lord (the massive Shiv ling) and also the darshan of the mother. My guru says that the temple, priests and poojas are all an external representation of our own super conscious mind. Keeping this in mind, i constantly enjoyed the darshan and the music which was continuously played in the temple which says 'Om namah Sivaya' repeatedly. Then myself and my driver\friend visited the temple on top of the hill where the great devotee of Lord Shiva Kannappa was graced by Lord Shiva. I meditated for a while on top of the hill and hope to maintain the mountaintop perspective when im entangled in emotions or the instinctive/intellectual subconscious states of mind.

Thus having charged by the cosmic rays of the darshan we returned to Bangalore safely. Thank you Baba for making our trip pleasant and peaceful. Aum namah Sivaya.

The Golden Age

Much has been predicted about the beginning of the Golden Age. The timelines go as per below. For the full list this is the place to go.

-3102 Astrology:Beginning of Kali era calendar according to contemporary Hindu scriptural calculations. fourth cycle

1879 ce Scrolls: Fourth time period (manvantara) referenced in Lemurian Scrolls begins. Sat Yuga

1879 ce Modern History:Thomas Edison invents the incandescent bulb, and man learns to light the night.

Scrolls: The fourth manvantara and current Sat Yuga (Golden Age) begin. "When the inhabitants of the Earth are able to light the night with their own devices...the Sat Siva Yuga will begin through this one advent in time and space...."

1945 Modern History:As chronicled in Lemurian Scrolls, revolutionary advancements are seen in technology and communication, and a blending of the races begins.

The Mayan calender which started in -3114 ends in 2012 AD. Some say that its the end of the world and the facts such as Global Warming have already triggered it. But our scriptures say that despite the problems faced by mankind, a new age will dawn when man turns inward, becomes spiritual. Competetion will be replaced by mutual co-operation and the like.


I came across this speech below from Sri Amma Bhagawan of Nemam which refers the same Golden age.

Staying positive with willpower

Willpower is a spiritual quality which makes all our inner quests and dreams a reality. Willpower is defined by my guru as follows "Willpower is the channeling of all energies toward one given point for a given length of time."

As explained in earlier posts -- It is not developing a strong will by having a lot of half-finished jobs. It is not developing a strong will by starting out with a bang on a project and then fizzling out. These only attach awareness to that which it is aware of and lead us into the distraction of thinking the external mind is real. One extremely important lesson in life ---- When we find ourselves not able to finish a project that we have started, because it got too boring or because its taking too much time. we have to be extremely positive and not allow the subconscious to become ramified with our basically being disappointed with ourselves. We have to work out extremely positively with our subconscious. -- Take a mountaintop attitude. If you are having a difficult day, tell yourself, "I'm working with my subconscious mind. Admittedly, things are not working out very well for me today, but I think I will have it all adjusted by evening." Then leap back in into the project where you had left it,work on it and finish it well beyond your expectations. Make every work you do satisfy your inner scrutiny and that brings about a little more willpower. Willpower has to be 'cultivated' like how we cultivate plants.

The habit of becoming constantly distracted makes it impossible for you to truly concentrate the mind or to realize anything other than distractions and the desires of the conscious mind itself. But with love & understanding of your own mind and with a constant positive attitude its possible to get right back on track and finish what we had started.

Driving a difficult project to completion doesn't take a lot of time. It just takes a lot of willpower. Someone can go along and work years and years and years and, with a minimal amount of willpower, constantly be distracted, constantly be complaining and constantly be unsuccessful. Another person can have the exact same approach and over a short period of time be extremely successful, because he has will. The previous way he lived his life, the previous things that he did, he handled in such a way that that willpower was there, or his awareness is a manifestation of willpower, and he goes soaring within on this will.

A person situated in the 'manipura' chakra is already doing pretty well in this arena. If you are working on a project creatively, you maintain your efforts until you bring it to a conclusion. It is such people who become truly successful in meditation.

The futility of effort ...

Managing emotional ups and downs

If you see something in someone else you do not like and it is affecting you emotionally, sit down and face it within your own subconscious mind. The sore spot is located there. If you feel someone is doing something that you do not think he should be doing, and this really gets on your nerves, just know that under the right circumstances you may do the same thing, because the tendency to react to it is there in your subconscious. Get into yourself and reprogram that area of your subconscious with good, positive affirmations. Firm up your lifestyle, be more strict with yourself, use your willpower and think positively. Do not allow a weak link in a chain of habit patterns to bar your spiritual unfoldment even for a moment. Sometimes we detect the weak link in our own chain by looking into the lives of other people.

If your parents are living the type of life that grates on your nerves, begin to realize now that perhaps when you become their age you may live a similar life. The grating effect that you feel indicates that the seeds of that kind of life are just coming up, and you are trying to suppress them by criticizing your parents; whereas what you should be doing is strengthening yourself through having compassion toward them.

Things that you cannot face in yourself you will hate when you see them in someone else. To counteract this, your universal love, the platform for Self Realization, must be awakened into the emotions of the instinctive mind and filter out into the conscious mind. So, as you are meditating and the various aspects of your subconscious come up, face them positively, reprogram them beautifully, and they will settle back into simply a memory pattern, resolved and incapable of disturbing you again.

One of the biggest barriers on the spiritual path is to dislike our own subconscious as we become familiar with it. We must watch this pitfall very closely. The subconscious mind is not an enemy. It is just a well-used piece of equipment that we are renewing. If we make an enemy out of the subconscious mind and walk around hanging our head wondering why this happened and why that happened, and "If it were not for the subconscious I would be farther along the path," we are simply programming the subconscious to become an even more formidable barrier. Instead, we have to bless the subconscious mind and look at it as a vital tool to help us in our spiritual evolution.

Take a mountaintop attitude. If you are having a difficult day, tell yourself, "I'm working with my subconscious mind. Admittedly, things are not working out very well for me today, but I think I will have it all adjusted by evening." Run to the store, buy a lot of paper, do a lot of writing and burning and clear up various subconscious areas and release awareness to soar within again. This is called the vasana daha tantra.

The point I want to make is: do not fear the subconscious mind. Realize that it has not been programmed as it should be. Therefore, the program has to be changed. Realize that your superconsciousness is the master programmer. Get busy and reprogram your subconscious through the power of affirmation. You can do it through the powers of meditation.

Of course, there is a portion of the subconscious mind that remains more or less the same, handling the instinctive, involuntary processes of the physical body. But by following a sattvic diet, which is conducive to meditation, this area of the subconscious also begins to improve. As we improve food intake and elimination processes, we stop storing up poisons in our cells. As stored poisons are released within the body, they are eliminated regularly. This more physical area of the subconscious mind is also improved through proper breathing, proper posture, hatha yoga, getting plenty of sun, exercise, walking and all of the many wonderful things that benefit the physical body.

Add to your contemplative lifestyle a craft. Working with your hands in doing a craft as a hobby, taking physical substance and turning it into something different, new and beautiful -- this kind of creativity is important in remolding the subconscious mind. It is also symbolic. You are actually remolding something on the physical plane and, by doing so, educating yourself in the process of changing the appearance of a physical structure, thus making it easier to change the more subtle mental and emotional structures within your own subconscious mind.

The best friend of everyone

"Yogakshemam Vahamyaham.- I shall take care of the well-being of My devotees."

Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.
Gita 18.65 http://vedabase.net/bg/18/65/en

(Thanks to Kiran BJ for sending this beautiful snap of Lord Krishnas feet)

Be the energy always

Intuitively grasp the source which is powering all the nerves, starting from head to toe in feet. Locate it, don't stop until u locate it in the spine, and Be it, Be this energy all the time, every second, every minute, every hour. Don't be the mind which goes to past experiences, don't be the subconscious mind which wants novelty, just be the energy and enjoy life, enjoy relationships with the new influx of profound actinic energy, be the energy always, one day The Self will show up.

Tapping into Your Intuition

Begin to feel that your intuition works rather rapidly and is generally very reasonable, but does not use the process of reason. When you really want to reason something out, it may take a lot of time, but when you get an intuitive flash, it's right there. Then if you want to prove it, you have to reason it out. You will find that reason and intuition agree. Intuition is more direct than reason. That is why you should always use intuition. Always go in and in and in and find answers from within yourself, rather than wasting time scurrying around in the externalities of the mind.


Take this teaching in and apply it to yourself, making every metaphysical and philosophical area work within you. Do not carry all of this around with you as knowledge in the intellect. It will burden your intellect, and soon you will have to forget it, because the subconscious will have more than it can handle of inner teaching. It takes a while to convince the subconscious that you are a spiritual being whose existence does not begin and end with this life. Therefore, this inner teaching must begin to be applied as soon as it has begun to be understood.

The superconscious mind is the most wonderful area of the mind there is, although awareness is not always in it. We are not always aware in the superconscious mind, because we are generally aware in the conscious mind, or aware of our own subconscious or that of another. But the more and more we detach awareness from subconscious binds and conscious-mind attachments, the more we become superconscious. When we feel as if we are living totally in the moment, as if there is no past and there never has been any past or future, we are becoming subconsciously certain we are an intense, vibrating entity of the eternal now. That is superconsciousness, and that is very real. More real than a table, a chair, an automobile or a person sitting next to you is this feeling of being an intense sheath of energy right in the eternal moment, with no past, no future. This is superconsciousness.

Things around not feeling good

There comes a time in a mans life where after intense meditation and while carrying on normal life, one becomes very sensitive (which is good), this sensitivity will create emotions and attachment and small things start hurting him and he doesn't feel good about things the way they are. This is the exact period of time when one has to be extremely aware and not let the subconscious mind take over to old unuseful habits which are latent and hidden. Detaching awareness constantly from that which it is aware of has to be practiced constantly. Do anything that takes to achieve this, breath control, self-contemplation, vasana daha tantra, reading gurus advice, visiting temple, anything, but the end result has to be achieved which is staying in super consciousness. To be aware of awareness and everything else as states of mind.

Then a truly dynamic willpower comes in place of the weakness of mind and everything becomes beautiful. Things will work right, success comes in and relationships suddenly become beautiful.

Visit to Ayurvedagram

Yesterday our whole team from office had been to Ayurvedagram (www.ayurvedagram.com). It was a wonderful experience. I learnt about very effective Pranayama, more about Meditation, and to eliminate back-pain, eye strain, and spondilytis through yoga. these diseases are common in IT folks who work for long hours even though thankfully im not having any of it (so far) .....

Amongst Pranayama, these were particularly effective to relax the mind

• Pranayama from Hatha Yoga (Surya Bhedan, Bhasrika, Ujjayi, Shitali, Sitkari, Bhramari, Murchha & Plavini Pranayama)
• Nadi Shuddhi Pranayama or Anuloma - Viloma (Alternate nostril breathing)
  
• Suryan Bhedan Pranayama (Right Nostril Breathing)
• Kapalbhati pranayam - Breathing forcefully

There were some more that were taught whose names i dont remember, but it goes like this - While inhaling forcefully both the hands go up, while exhaling both the hands come down near the shoulders (like Karate\Jujitsu practice).

http://www.yogapoint.com/info/pranayama.htm
http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/pran/pran_type.html

Other things i learnt

• Pranayama is a pre-requisite to meditation and will give good results - this i personally experienced yesterday
  
• Yoga exercises and self-contemplation are meant the keep the body in a relaxed state even while working
• Specific Bija Mantras stimulate one of the chakras starrting from Muladhara chakra to Sahasrara
• When in the thoughtless state in meditation, breath slows down and cosmic energy enters the body through the Brahma Randra opening in the top of the head.
• While the energy goes through all the 72000 nadis, it purifies each and a slight pain is felt during this purification
• On continuing meditation the pain disappears, the more we meditate, the more cosmic energy enters
• Breath slows down to almost to the point of no breathing, metabolism slows down, everything slows down.
• The cosmic energy is 3 times more if meditation is practiced in the centroid of the pyramid (1/3 above the base of the pyramid).
• The final goal of yogic exercises, pranayama and meditation is not just relaxing the mind and body but to attain Self realization and see God in everyone we interact.

Living Two-Thirds Within

Living two-thirds within oneself and one-third in the external world--how do we do it? As soon as we live within ourselves, we become conscious of all of our various secret thoughts, all of our various emotions, that we would just as soon be without. Therefore, we distract ourselves and endeavor to live two-thirds in the external world and only one-third within ourselves. As aspirants on the path, you have to live your life two-thirds within yourself. When you are conscious of the thoughts that you don't want to think, the emotions that you don't want to feel, go deep within where they don't exist. Take awareness to the central source of energy, right within the spine itself. Feel that energy flowing through the body, moving the muscles, enlivening the cells. Then you are two-thirds within yourself, and the world looks bright and cheery all the time; the sun is always shining. Immediately, when we begin to identify totally with our thoughts as being reality, then we begin to make mistakes. We're living two-thirds in the external world.

How to strike the balance? Regulate the breath throughout the day. Keep the spine always straight. Always sit up straight. As soon as the spine is bent, awareness is externalized. We're living two-thirds in the external area of the mind and only one-third in. As soon as the spine is straight, our awareness is internalized. We're living two-thirds within and only one-third out.
What's the biggest barrier? Fear. Afraid of our secret thoughts. Afraid of our secret feelings. What's the biggest escape from fear? Go to the center, where energy exists, the energy that moves the life through the body. The simplest way is move your spine back and forth. Feel the power that moves that spine. Feel the power that moves that spine back and forth. Feel that energy going out through the physical body. Open your eyes and look at the world again, and you'll see it bright and shiny. You're two-thirds in and one-third out in awareness. You're balanced.

"Be renewed by a change of your mind." Be renewed by releasing awareness from one area of the vast universe of the mind, drawing it back into its source and, releasing it again, sending it to another of the vast areas of the mind.

Claim the Being Of Yourself

According to my guru, kids who are in teens have amazing will power. The Manipura chakra is strong in this age. This will they can use positively or negatively. Some kids use this negatively and ruin their lives, some make\lose money by getting into drugs, drinks, movies, and all sorts of bad habits. Some spend their parents' hard earned money in a wrong way, some kids use the power positively, become well educated, learn things more than ever they knew before or they would know in future and attain great results, similarly those spiritually inclined attain Self realization during this age, examples being Sri Ramana Maharshi who attained the state during His teens, so also Sathya Sai Baba, my great guru, Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, and many many great yogis in the past. Once a person crosses his teen, if he has properly used his willpower to attain things he wants (which is the realm of Manipura chakra), he slowly matures into the anahat chakra. In this chakra intuition guides him for direct cognition about things. In a flash he knows things as they are, as they should be and how they will be in future.

This happens only when he has lived well in the Manipura chakra ...... In the Manipura chakra there is a good chance of the person entering the anava marga ..... the path where his ego becomes huge. And there is a good chance he may fall down to the lower chakras. So the devotee has to remember to claim his awareness from any state of consciousness he is in and be himself in order to fully understand which chakra he is working in at the moment. How to do that is explained below by my guru.

Claim the Being Of Yourself

We say, "I am sick," and in the English language that means my body is sick, or I am aware of this body not being in a perfect state of health. The mystic knows he is not this body. He can even remember dropping off the body many, many different times, getting new bodies through the process of reincarnation. We are not what we are aware of. We are separate from that which we are aware of. We are only flowing through these areas of the mind. If we live in San Francisco, we're not San Francisco. If we live in unhappiness, we're not unhappiness. That's only one of the cities of the mind. This is a great meditation. You can grasp this awakening in thirty seconds. You can grasp this awakening in thirty hours, or thirty minutes. You can grasp this awakening and have it come to you vibrantly in thirty weeks, thirty months, or thirty years or thirty lifetimes. It just depends upon your willpower.

As soon as we can understand awareness detached from that which it is aware of, we have a vibrant energy, a tremendous drive; a tremendous willpower is released from within us. And we live with the feeling that we can do anything that we want to do, almost as quickly as we want to do it. We want things to happen now, for we vividly see the area where they already exist within the force fields of the mind itself.

How do we live our life from this point? We begin to apply this philosophy in every department of our life. There are some habit patterns in our subconscious mind that have not caught up with this new perspective as yet. And you'll be running up against them. As soon as you find awareness totally identified with a subconscious area that has become conscious, immediately turn inward, detach awareness from that which it is aware of and just be pure energy. You can expect a beautiful life, a beautiful relationship with the being of yourself. Claim the being of yourself as you. You have enough knowledge now. You don't have to discover the being of yourself and keep looking for it. Just be the being of yourself and travel through the mind as the traveler travels around the globe.

The wonderful story of awareness, I could go on and on talking about it, because it is so very basic and so very, very important. This then makes an infinite intelligence and everyone the same. Only, they are living in different areas of the mind, or different houses.

Chakras - The Spinning Wheels of Consciousness

I found the perspective that i was searching for, since 26 years .... I observed extremely intelligent people who had high willpower, was wondering how they manage to have it, observed extremely emotional folks, extremely stable folks, the answer to all lies in this message from my guru. How consciousness evolves from one stage to another is clearly mentioned.

There are six chakras above the muladhara chakra, which is located at the base of the spine. When awareness is flowing through these chakras, consciousness is in the higher nature. There are seven chakras below the muladhara chakra, and when awareness is flowing through them, consciousness is in the lower nature.

In this Kali Yuga most people live in the consciousness of the seven force centers below the muladhara chakra. Their beliefs and attitudes strongly reflect the animal nature, the instinctive mind. We want to lift our own consciousness and that of others into the chakras above the muladhara. This brings the mind out of the lower nature into the higher nature. We do this through personal sadhana, prayer, meditation, right thought, speech and action and love for Lord Siva, who is All in all.

These chakras starting from top of head to bottom are as below

Muladhara, the Realm of Memory :- This chakra is associated also with human qualities of individuality, egoism, materialism and dominance. Man lives mostly in this chakra during the first seven years of life. Men living fully in these lower three chakras therefore say that God is above them, not knowing that "above" is their own head and they are living "below," near the base of the spine.

During each age throughout history, one or another of the planets or chakras has come into power. Remember when the Greek God Cronus was in supreme power? He is the God of time. Mass consciousness came into memory, or the muladhara chakra, with its new-found concern for time, for a past and a future, dates and records.

Svadhishthana, the centre for reasoning :- Its color is reddish orange. Once the ability to remember has been established, the natural consequence is reason, and from reason evolves the intellect. Reason and intellect work through this chakra. We open naturally into this chakra between the ages of seven and thirteen, when we want to know why the sky is blue and the "whys" of everything. If very little memory exists, very little intellect is present. In other words, reason is the manipulation of memorized information.

In History Next the mass consciousness came into the svadhishthana and its powers of reason. Reason was a God in the Golden Age of Greece. Discourse, debate and logic all became instruments of power and influence. If it wasn't reasonable, it wasn't true.

Manipura, the centre of Willpower : - Its color is yellow. It is represented in the central nervous system by the solar plexus, where all nerves in the body merge to form what has been termed man's "second brain." This is significant, for depending on how the energy is flowing, the forces of will from this chakra add power either to worldly consciousness through the first two centers or to spiritual consciousness through the fourth and fifth centers. In these states of consciousness, the ego rises to its greatest prominence, and emotional experiences are extremely intense. If, on the other hand, the willpower has been directed toward higher awakening, awareness is propelled into deeper dimensions. Gains and losses of material possessions and power no longer magnetize their awareness, and they are freed to explore higher centers of their being. Inwardly directed, the willpower gives resolute strength to these aspirants, strength to discipline the outer nature and to practice sadhana.

In History Next the chakra of will came into power. Man conquered nations, waged wars, developed efficient weapons. Crusades were fought and kingdoms established during the period. Our world was experiencing force over force.

Anahata, direct cognition

Its color is a smoky green. Man usually awakens into this region of cognition around age twenty-one to twenty-six. Life for seekers in this chakra is different than for others. It is in anahata, literally "unstruck sound," that the aspirant attains his mountaintop consciousness. Instead of viewing life in its partial segments, like seeing just the side of the mountain, he raises his consciousness to a pinnacle from which an objective and comprehensive cognition of the entirety is the natural conclusion. Uninvolved in the seemingly fractured parts, he is able to look through it all and understand -- as though he were looking into a box and seeing the inside, the outside, the top and the bottom, all at the same time. It looks transparent to him and he is able to encompass the totality in one instantaneous flash of direct cognition. He knows in that split second all there is to know about a subject, and yet would find it difficult to verbalize that vast knowing. Various highly endowed psychics are prone to utilize this force center, for such spiritual powers as healing are manifested here. People with the anahata chakra awakened are generally well-balanced, content and self-contained. More often than not, their intellect is highly developed and their reasoning keen. The subtle refinement of their nature makes them extremely intuitive, and what is left of the base instincts and emotions is easily resolved through their powers of intellect. It is important that the serious aspirant gain enough control of his forces and karmas to remain stabilized at the heart center. This should be home base to him, and he should rarely or never fall below anahata in consciousness. Only after years of sadhana and transmutation of the sexual fluids can this be attained, but it must be attained and awareness must settle here firmly before further unfoldment is sought.

In History, Direct cognition, the anahata chakra, came into power when man opened the doors of science within his own mind. He cognized the laws of the physical universe: mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology. Then he unfolded the mind sciences by penetrating into his subconscious mind, into the chakras where he had previously been. With man's looking into his own mind, psychology, metaphysics and the mind religions were born.

Vishuddha, Universal love :- Whenever people feel filled with inexpressible love and devotion to all mankind, all creatures, large and small, they are vibrating within vishuddha. In this state there is no consciousness of a physical body, no consciousness of being a person with emotions, no consciousness of thoughts. They are just being the light or being fully aware of themselves as actinic force flowing through all form. They see light throughout the entirety of their body, even if standing in a darkened room.

Now, in our present time, the mass consciousness is coming into vishuddha -- the forces of universal love. The forerunners of this emerging Sat Yuga, popularly called the New Age, are not worshiping reason as the great thing of the mind or trying to take over another's possessions through the use of force. They are not worshiping science or psychology or the mind religions as the great panacea. They are looking inward and worshiping the light, the Divinity within their own body, within their own spine, within their own head, and they are going in and in and in and in, into a deep spiritual quest which is based on direct experience, on compassion for all things in creation.

As the forces of the vishuddha chakra come into prominence in the New Age, it does not mean that the other centers of consciousness have stopped working. But it does mean that this new one coming into prominence is claiming the energy within the mass consciousness. When this center of divine love gains a little more power, everything will come into an exquisite balance. There will be a natural hierarchy of people based on the awakening of their soul, just as previous ages established hierarchies founded on power or intellectual acumen. With that one needed balance, everything on the Earth will quiet down, because the vishuddha chakra is of the new age of universal love in which everyone sees eye to eye, and if they do not, there will always be someone there to be the peacemaker. Look back through history and you will see how these planetary influences, these great mind strata of thought, have molded the development of human society.

Ajna, the command centre or divine sight :-

Ajna chakra means "command center" and grants direct experience of the Divine, not through any knowledge passed on by others, which would be like the knowledge found in books. The composition of this chakra is so refined, being primarily of actinic force, that a conscious knowledge of the soul as a scintillating body of pure energy or white light is its constant manifestation. From here man peers deeply into the mind substance, seeing simultaneously into the past, the present and the future -- deeper into evolutionary phases of creation, preservation and destruction. He is able to travel consciously in his inner body, to enter any region of the mind without barrier and to reduce through his samyama, contemplation, all form to its constituent parts.

Sahasrara, the crown chakra

The crown center is the accumulation of all other force centers in the body, as well as the controlling or balancing aspect of all other sheaths or aspects of man. It is a world within a world within itself. When the yogi travels in high states of contemplation, when he is propelled into vast inner space, he is simply aware of this center in himself. In such deep states, even the experience of light would not necessarily occur, since light is only present when a residue of darkness is kept, or since light is the friction of pure actinic force meeting and penetrating the magnetic forces. In the sahasrara, the jnani dissolves even blissful visions of light and is immersed in pure space, pure awareness, pure being.

Once this pure state is stabilized, awareness itself dissolves and only the Self remains. This experience is described in many ways: as the death of the ego; as the awareness leaving the mind form through the "door of Brahman," the Brahmarandhra, at the top of the head; and as the inexplicable merger of the atman, or soul, with Siva, or God. From another perspective, it is the merger of the forces of the pituitary with the forces of the pineal. Great inner striving, great sadhana and tapas, first activate the pituitary gland -- a small, master gland found near the hypothalamus which regulates many human functions, including growth, sexuality and endocrine secretions. It is inwardly seen as a small white light and referred to as "the pearl of great price." When the pituitary is fully activated, it begins to stimulate the pineal gland, situated at the roof of the thalamic region of the brain and influencing maturation of consciousness expansion. The pineal is inwardly viewed as a beautiful blue sapphire. For man to attain his final, final, final realization, the forces of these two glands have to merge. Symbolically, this is the completion of the circle, the serpent devouring its own tail. For those who have attained this process, it can be observed quite closely through the faculty of divine sight.

How to go into Meditation

This article from my guru gave me clarity in how to enter and exit meditation which i wasnt following as perfectly as He had mentioned. These writings show how important a guru is in one's spiritual progress and why it is necessary to surrender to a guru to reach god.

Going into meditation

The refined, inner energy that you experience in your deepest meditations is always there, was always there and shall always be there. It's just there. You don't have to call upon it. It's just there. Just be aware that you are it, and not that you are any other of the many other types of things that you can be. Just be that intangible, tangible energy and don't be the emotions that you feel. Don't be thoughts that you think. Don't be the stomach that's hungry. Don't be the body that's moving. Don't be the place that you're going to. Just be that energy. Then you can do anything in the external world and really enjoy life.

Entry

Here are some basic signposts for successful meditation. Remember them and do them slowly on your own.

• First, sit up nice and straight with the spine erect and the head balanced at the top of the spine. Proper posture is necessary because the very simple act of equalizing the weight and having it held up by the spine causes you to lose body consciousness. Just the equalizing of your weight can do that.

• Breathe deeply and rhythmically.

• Feel the energies of the body begin to flow harmoniously through the body.

• Now try to feel the warmth of the body. Simply feel the warmth of the body. Once you can sense physical warmth, try to feel the totality of the nerve system at one time -- all of the five or six thousand miles of nerve currents. It's simple. Feel it all at one time and grasp that intuitively.

• Now, this nerve current is being energized from one central source, and we're going to find that source. It's in the central core of the spine.

• Feel that energy flow through the spine and out through this nerve system, which finally causes warmth in the physical body, which you've already felt. But now don't feel the warmth of the body. Don't feel the nerve system. Feel only the power of the spine. Once you have done this, you are ready to meditate.

You're alive in your body. You look alive. You look vital. Your face is beginning to glow. Next simply sit in a state of pure consciousness. Be aware of being aware. Don't be aware of a second thing. Simply be aware that you are aware -- a totality of dynamic, scintillating awareness, vibrant right in the central source of energy. It's closer to what you really are than your name, than your intellectual education, than your emotional behavior or the physical body itself, which you only inhabit. From this point in your own personal meditation you can take off and travel in many different directions. If your guru has given you a mantra, for instance, contemplate on the inner vibrations of the mantra. Chant it to yourself, or follow whatever inner instructions he has given you.

Exit

Coming out of meditation, we perform this process in reverse. Again feel the power of the spine and let that power flow right out through the nerve system, energizing the miles and miles of nerve currents. Feel your nerve system coming to life. Feel the warmth of the body as we come back into physical consciousness. Finally, open your eyes and view the external world around you and compare it to the internal world that you very rapidly just touched into in your meditation. It's easy to remember this entrance and exit to meditation. Do it often. Get to know the energy flows of the body. Live in the pure energy of the spine. Lean on no one. If you must lean on something, make it your own spine.

How to overcome karma

I was always curious to know how meditation can overcome one's karma, i finally got the answer from my guru. Here is how it goes

How does meditation affect one's karmas?

Karma is congested magnetic forces, and meditating is rising above karmic binding influences. You can control the congestion of karma or avoid the congestion and thus control your karma. This proves to yourself that you are the creator, the one who preserves and the destroyer simultaneously on the higher levels of consciousness. Yet, you have to come back occasionally to the "little old you" on this level and do the things that you have been accustomed to doing as a human, until you fully have the complete realization of the Self God -- the imkaif experience. Then you penetrate the doors of the Absolute into the core of existence itself, and you become the Self that everyone is searching for. But to overcome karmic patterns, the will must be tremendously strong and stable, and that means we must demand perfection in our life.
Why would you ever want to place demands of perfection upon yourself? You now walk the path of perfection, and you must be so to walk that path.

What is this perfection?

• First, it is a clarity of cognition.

• Second, it is a bursting of actinic love for your fellow man.

• Third, it is an openness and willingness to serve and fit in, in any capacity.

• Fourth, it is living a contemplative lifestyle better every day.

• Fifth, it is mastering all of your yoga disciplines given to you by your guru.

• Sixth, it is the ability to hold responsibility, maintain a continuity of your own karma yoga, yet have the mobile quality to be ever ready to do something different without losing continuity of what you have been doing in holding your responsibility.

If you can gear yourself to accomplish all this, you are on the path of enlightenment and you will surely prove to yourself, when you have your realization, that you are a free man in a free world, subject to nobody, to no power, even the power of karma. How could That which is formless and causeless be subject to anything?

Consciousness states - (EEG)

The brain activity as detected by EEG (Electro encaphalo graph) categorizes our flow of consciousness and the frequencies associated with it. Ancient Yogis detected these states long long ago in Ancient India and accordingly had categorized them into 4 states :-

1. Jagrat Avastha (Wakeful states)
2. Svapna Avastha (Dreaming Sleep state)
3. Nidra Avastha (Deep sleep state)
4. Turiya Avastha (Meaning the 4th state, beyond deep sleep)

A sincere Yogi always endeavours to reach the Deep sleep state, but consciously in meditation (not unconsciously as in deep sleep). He reaches turiya state in Nirvikalpa Samadhi and turiyatheeta (beyond the 4th state) when He becomes Self Realized. Where the frequencies associated with EEG can come close to Zero! Thats the instant, when his consciousness expands rapidly and he perceives God in Himself and every atom and every living being around him. This is the state to be endeavoured. This is the state which is the goal of human life. This is the state when man attains perfection.

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Click on image to enlarge

Lord Krishna says in Bhagavadgita

(Chapter 6, Text 28)

Steady in the Self, being freed from all material contamination, the yogi achieves the highest perfectional stage of happiness in touch with the Supreme Consciousness.

(Chapter 6, Text 20-23)

The stage of perfection is called trance, or samadhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.

(Chapter 6, Text 27)

The yogi whose mind is fixed on Me verily attains the highest happiness. By virtue of his identity with Brahman, he is liberated; his mind is peaceful, his passions are quieted, and he is freed from sin.

(Chapter 6, Text 6)

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his very mind will be the greatest enemy.

More information about these states are available here :-

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_wave


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_wave


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_wave


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_wave


• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theta_wave

The true India in 1835

The true India in 1835, we were rich materially, emotionally and spiritually ..... Time to re-establish ourselves .... Impress this strongly upon your minds .....

Nandinatha Sutras

Nandinatha Sutras describe the qualities of those who are on the way to Siva. They are as follows. Siva's followers do the following :-

• Life's Highest Purpose : Strive for God Realization as the first and foremost goal of life.

• Four Noble Goals :Are ever mindful that life's purpose is to wholeheartedly serve God, Gods and guru and fulfill the four traditional Hindu goals: duty (dharma), wealth (artha), love (kama) and liberation (moksha).

• Seeing Siva's Energy In All : The Devotees bask contentedly in Siva consciousness, seeing the pure life energy in every person, animal, bird, reptile, fish, insect, plant, tree and even microscopic intelligence as Supreme God Siva Himself.

• Oneness With The Satguru : They Strive to be inwardly one with their satguru, acknowledging the paramount need for a spiritual preceptor to guide them on the upward climb, the straight path that leads to Lord Siva's holy feet.

• Seeking While Strong : Siva's devotees heed the ancient wisdom: "The physical body does not last forever. Age prowls like a leopard. Before the limbs lose their vitality, one should take to the auspicious path to the Self."

• Living Contemplatively : Siva's devotees cultivate a contemplative nature by meditating daily, seeking the light, drawing the lesson from each experience and identifying with infinite intelligence, not with body, emotion or intellect. Aum.

• Accepting Our Karma : They Accept all experiences, however difficult, as their self-created karma, without cringing or complaining. Theirs is the power of surrender, accepting what is as it is and dealing with it courageously. Aum.

• Flowing With The River Of Life : They live vibrantly in the eternity of the moment and flow with the river of life by giving up negative attachments, releasing the pains, injustices, fears and regrets that bind consciousness in the past. Aum.

• Purpose, Plan, Persistence And Push : They Approach each enterprise with deliberate thoughtfulness, and act only after careful consideration. They succeed in every undertaking by having a clear purpose, a wise plan, persistence and push. Aum.

• Moving The Forces Of The World : By remaining steadfast on the path, upholding the yamas and niyamas and relying on their indomitable will, move the forces of the world, and are not moved or affected by them. Aum Namah Sivaya.

• The Lion-hearted Ones : Those who live with Siva fulfill life's purposes by placing heavy demands on themselves from within themselves, never shirking their duty to religion, family, community or planet. Jai, they are the lion-hearted. Aum.

• Excellence And Noncompetitiveness : Those who live with Siva endeavor to be their best in whatever they do, to excel and make a difference. Even so, they remain apart from the demeaning and contentious "winners and losers" spirit of competition. Aum.

• Teaching The Five Precepts And Practices : Those who live with Siva teach children the five precepts: God as All in all, temples, karma, reincarnation/liberation, scripture/preceptor; and five practices: virtue, worship, holy days, sacraments and pilgrimage. Aum.

• Guarding Against Instincts And Intellect : Those who live with Siva keep the mountaintop perspective that life on Earth is an opportunity for spiritual progress. They never lose sight of this truth by becoming infatuated with instinctive-intellectual pursuits. Aum.

Getting back to basics

Your journey on this Earth has only one goal, Self Realization. You are here to attain the highest possible states of consciousness. You are not here to react to the petty incidents that occur in the valley of the subconscious. You are here to learn to control the mind and live on the mountaintop. If you fail yourself, you are the one who must suffer your failure. Often, in retelling their failures or their sufferings, people react to or re-enact the original experience all over again. But learning to extract the lesson from the experience is like walking through the rain without getting wet.

We have to hold a constant vigil and keep our feet firmly planted on the spiritual path at all times, knowing that we can fall off the path until we have attained full illumination, or Self Realization, in this or future lives. By taking a stand within yourself on small issues, you can always find a different way, a way which will open the door to new opportunity, selflessness and serenity. But, to the degree that we are unable to restrain the inclinations of our lower mind, to the degree that we find ourselves incapable of entering into positive observances, so do we open ourselves to inferiority complex, jealousy, hatred, self-indulgence, lust, fear, greed and all sorts of mental and physical ailments. Being aware of the laws of life allows an uninhibited and natural unfoldment, just as a bud unfolds into a flower.

Some more golden words from my Respected Guru -

We're here to realize the Self, to have that one dramatic experience where everything that we thought was things is turned upside down, and our whole perspective afterwards changes. That is the purpose for living on this Earth. That is the purpose for being here this very moment. That is the purpose for my speaking to you in this way, to impress upon you very thoroughly that you are here for Self Realization, walking on this planet. Get it. Direct all your energies toward it, and then the tremendous power of desire will be for the one goal, not for the many goals toward which desires usually flow. When that happens, Self Realization will come to you. It'll be very easy. One day, you will be Self Realized.

Step IV - Become The Watcher

The beginning stages of watching the mind think I shall describe as similar to sitting quietly with your eyes open and, while not thinking about anything in particular, simply looking at what is around you -- all of the time feeling somewhat empty on the inside, but seeing what is in front of you, to the left side of you, to the right side of you, above you, below you, and knowing what each object is, but not thinking about any object or collection of objects. Your eyes are watching; who lives behind them is the watcher. The objects that the mind perceives are similar to thoughts.

Your perfected state, too, as the watcher, is right there, deep within you. The next time you sit for meditation, follow my guru's advice to us all and witness your thoughts. Be that stationary awareness, holding form in its own perfection. All you have to do is to watch your mind think. Then and only then are you experiencing your perfect state of inner being. The only difference between the jnani and the novice is that the jnani stays in there longer as the watcher, whereas the novice experiences this only momentarily from time to time.
This is the result of a great abundance of your sadhana, and as the watcher, once stabilized within a new platform, a new beginning is commenced. There is much preparation that you can perform to attain this prolonged state more rapidly. There are some do's and don'ts to be heeded and explicitly obeyed. Do regulate your in-breath to equal the same number of counts as your out-breath, and feel the bliss of your body as it becomes relaxed and harmonized. Don't allow indulgence in sexual fantasy for even one moment. Do correct your diet to that of sattvic foods that grow above the ground. Don't indulge in mental argument with yourself or anyone else.
These four suggestions are the basic formula for cleansing the dross from the mind as well as from the subconscious by not putting more into it.

Step III - Consciously Superconscious

The following tirumantiram saying summarizes it all as to what i need to execute for Step III.

You need no shouting when you withdraw into understanding. You need no speaking when you are seated in superconsciousness. You need no holy rites when you are inwardly detached. You need no meditation when you have reached the actionless state.
Tirumantiram 1634

It is easier to know when you are NOT superconscious than when you are superconscious, because your superconsciousness is such a natural state. It is such a beautiful state. It is such a full, wholesome state to be in, that you are not aware generally that you are superconscious. When you are not feeling too well within yourself, you are not superconscious. When you are feeling really good and satisfied within yourself, you are superconscious. When you are arguing with yourself, you are not superconscious. You are flowing through an area of the intellectual mind, taking two points of view and flowing from one to another. When discussing something with someone, you are not superconscious, for superconsciousness is a one-way street. You speak right from the core of existence without really thinking about what you are going to say. You just speak out and hear what you said afterwards.

I liked the last sentence - I speak out and hear what i said afterwards :-)

If you can remain totally centered in awareness of the energy within your spine and the energy within the head, you become aware of the same energy within everybody and everything you see. You are immediately in a superconscious state when this happens. Therefore, the simple goal is, stay in this consciousness of energy for the rest of your life. It is just that easy, but it is not quite that simple to accomplish, because you have already trained your awareness to move into other channels of the mind, and it will do that automatically as soon as you cease to be aware of the energy within the spine.

All you have to do is to reprogram the subconscious a little and move awareness out of the conscious mind, and your journey is within. You are superconscious now. You have to accept that. You do not have to "get to be" superconscious. This is not something that is going to happen to you all of a sudden and then cause you to be different. The thing that is going to happen to you is that you will release your individual awareness from the so-called bondages of the habit patterns of the external mind that it had been accustomed to flowing through. Once it is released, you will automatically flow into other inner areas of the mind because you have been studying about them and now have the map clearly outlined for you.

Step II - Lean on your spine and get centered.

You are only that "AWARENESS" which visits different areas of minds, like how a traveler travels to different cities in the world. Just ponder over the words, AWARENESS, WILLPOWER, ENERGY. And you will be centered. You are that intangible energy that powers every muscle and vein in your body. Awareness has to pass through confused states of mind in meditation where consciousness tends to indentify itself with awareness itself rather than that which is aware of and has to be eliminated through the light of understanding. By becoming consciously conscious every moment, we live in the present fully aware of whats happening around, "Am i fully aware of what im doing right now?" .... "Im all right, right now" These will be mantras going forward from this moment. And I will find my self god in the that of the that of the that, I will, I Will and I WILL.

Excerpt from Sri Sri Sivaya Subramuniya swami's "Merging with Siva"Chapter 16 "Im all right right now", my loving guru:

We have to lean on our own spine. But first we have to claim our spiritual heritage and feel "I'm all right, right now." By saying this and believing it, we pull the energies in just a little and become centered again. When we ask ourselves point blank, "Am I all right, right now?" we have to come up with a "Yes." Lean on your own spine. Feel the power in the spine. Feel the energy in the spine. The energy in the spine is not concerned with any fear or worry or doubt -- not at all. It is a pure, powerful, blissful energy. Lean on it, and you will go crashing through into inner states of meditation. Things in the world will also work out right for you. You will be in the flow of life. You will have perfect timing. Beautiful things will begin to happen to you in the exterior world. Opportunities will open up for you where there were no opportunities before. People will become nice to you who ordinarily would not. All this and more begins to happen because mentally you are leaning on yourself, and people in general like you to do this.

Realization Is the Key

What does it mean to "get centered" and to "be centered"? Actually, what it means is to feel the primal source within, to feel so centered that you are the center. And we always are something of what we feel, our hands or our legs or our bodies or our emotions or our desires. Most people on the path have the desire to get rid of their desires. It's an impossible battle. Have you ever tried to get rid of your desires? If you would stop trying to get rid of your desires, then you would be centered, because you then take the energy out of desire. You take awareness away from that world of desire, and you get right in the primal source of the energy which flows through the physical body. It flows through the emotional network, right through the intellectual mind. That primal source of energy is flowing through the spine in each and every one of us this very moment. Feel it?

The entire spiritual unfoldment process, oddly enough, is designed to throw you off center so that you have to work to pull yourself on center. First life throws you off center. You have all kinds of experiences. You make mistakes and, with your indomitable will, have to control that fluctuating awareness to get it right on center and be all right, right now. Feel that powerful energy flowing through every nerve current and be that energy rather than the fluctuating nerve current. Then, one day, when you really get good at it, you find a guru. You are firmly on center, and he tries to throw you off.

My guru, Yogaswami, would always throw his disciples off center and set them spinning. They had to work hard with themselves to get on center again. That strengthens the sinews and the muscles of man's becoming himself, becoming totally aware that he is aware and then controlling his mind by not allowing his awareness to get caught up in the vast illusion of the externalities of the mind. How's that? That's a good one -- the vast illusion of the externalities of the mind!
What is this center? Well, it's like the inside of an empty glass. You know something is there, and when you're aware of it, you know that you're aware inside that empty glass. However, when you're aware of the glass itself, that's something else. When you're aware of the outside of the glass, that's something else again. When you're aware of the table the glass is sitting on, again that's something else. Now imagine you are like the glass. Become aware of the space inside. That is the tangible intangible you have to grasp.

The best way to work this is a very simple way. Let's try it now. Just open and close your hands and feel the muscles and the bones. Now feel an intangible something, an intangible energy, which is that life force, and soon you will feel a force within that. That is your force of awareness that gives the command to the life forces, to the muscles and sinews which open and close your hand. So, be that intangible force rather than the hand. Be the commander who commands the muscles to relax and tense, to open and close. It's an intangible reality. This you realize. You don't think about it. Your intellect cannot give it to you. Your instinct and emotions cannot give it to you. It's something you have to realize. When you grasp it, you start to unfold and awaken spiritually. It comes from the deeper chakras, the higher chakras. And it's very easy. You either have grasped it or you haven't grasped it. So, work with that and grasp that. Then the unfoldment process begins. Finally you begin to see light within the head, light within the body. You begin to have beautiful, beautiful inner experiences. Everybody these days wants to have profound inner experiences without the use of drugs, or without the use of anything but their own positive willpower. That's the goal of the unfoldment of the people of all nations today, according to my own poll. And it is the right and mature goal.