Tuesday, December 30, 2008

I am the boss of my Mind !

 

Loved this chapter so much from Gurudeva that i wanted to post it here.

The Cause of Joy and Sorrow

Somewhere the idea was born that man should live in states of happiness and joy all of the time. But, in the first place, happiness and joy depend upon unhappiness and sorrow, even to be recognized or appreciated. If man would only know that whatever emotion transpires within him foreshadows its opposite. Secondly, suffering is a greater intensity, a higher vibration, than happiness. You do not learn much from your happiness's; you learn from the states of suffering, which awaken the higher consciousness of your soul. But suffering has no value for its own sake.

You learn more from the states of suffering than happiness

When the mind recognizes it is suffering over something or other, it is time to practice meditation, to see into the causes, to expand your consciousness a little bit more so that you will grasp the workings of life and its karmic laws. Then you will attain to a greater intensity than either joy or suffering has to offer. You will view the wheel of life, of cause and effect, objectively. And you will not so quickly identify yourself with the lower emotions or the objects of your own mind's creation.

Then there are the people who, like a fish caught by a fisherman, grasp onto the hook, who step on the spiritual path, but spend their time flip-flopping in the water, tugging at the line, swimming first one way then the other, never really approaching the surface. Why? They live in their ego, that's all. Their consciousness is limited. The ego is just a trifle dumb. Have you observed an egotistical person? He is just a little dumb, isn't he--not aware of the layers and layers of wisdom within him.


It is the wise man who recognizes the importance of controlling the forces of his mind. His life is a struggle to make his philosophy real, to gain control of the cycles of experience which have tied him to the wheel of karma. You don't escape the chain of cause and effect by just sitting with your eyes closed, trying to keep awake, trying to meditate. The genuine practice of yoga involves meeting new challenges each day, having new realizations each day, becoming the boss of your mind, not allowing it to flop around at the end of the line. This type of diligent concentration will definitely change you from the inside out.

The genuine practice of yoga involves meeting new challenges each day, having new realizations each day, becoming the boss of your mind, not allowing it to flop around at the end of the line.

You will begin to realize, more and more, that you are the creator of your life and every aspect of it.

But your incarnation on this planet is not complete until you have exhausted the wheel of karma, and it will not exhaust itself unless you gain control of it. The wheel of karma, of cause and effect, the world of form, is apparent only when you look at it. You only attain the natural state of your radiant inner being when you step off the wheel of karma. It is not natural for man to live bound to the lower states of mind, ignorant of the fact that God dwells within. But the hearing and understanding of this truth is only the first glimmer of the dawn, a preliminary awakening. The rest, the final realization, is up to you. It is up to you and you alone to penetrate the veil of illusion and realize the Self, the Absolute, beyond desire, beyond the experiences of the mind. It is up to you to realize God.

Aum Namasivaya

Pilgrimage Trip Learning's

 

Had a wonderful darshan of Shirdi Sai Baba @ Shirdi for more than 10 minutes. Though heavily crowded there was a sense of peace I could feel in it. Other visits included Dhagdu Sheth Ganapathi temple and Lord Siva @ Pune and Shani temple @ Shani Shingapur.

The learning's from the trip were many. In a nutshell it was along the following lines.

  • The importance of the practice of tyêmmûîf state in Shum language - the state of being of protecting the inner life by remaining two-thirds within inner consciousness and one-third in external consciousness. The peace it generates in mind is really amazing especially even at the end of a long tiring day. This in turn leads to better health as well.
  • The importance of keeping the physical body fit by not feeding it too much/too less of food and its effect on the mind.
  • How People live in greedy states of consciousness and the way lack of fulfillment in life is driving them for aggressive marketing (@Shingapur)
  • The sense of “pursuit of happiness” driven by lack of fulfillment in every person whether it is a better job, better spouse, better car etc.
  • The way people react in anger for a short amount of time (by totally identifying themselves with the ego) @ specific circumstances.
  • Many people living with so many voices in their mind all the time. This is exactly what the wise folks say “we are a crowd inside us”
  • The power of staying unattached to circumstances, places, events or people as mentioned in this post.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

The need for planning

 

Today i read about Gurudevas speech on Planning : the Key to success and have set out some goals to myself accordingly.

The Nandinatha sutra states

"Siva's devotees 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."

Goal

I have set goals along the following categories and intend to be persistent in achieving them.

1) spiritual goals
2) social goals
3) cultural goals
4) economic goals
5) educational/career goals
6) physical and health goals

tiru

Aum Namasivaya

Friday, December 19, 2008

Oneness and its stages

 

I discovered this article on the web courtesy: enlightenment-online.com which describes various stages of enlightenment. This is in sync with what my guru says as well. The various states are as shown below. All info below is directly from enlightenment-online.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stages of Enlightenment

The Witness state--

1.  No more inner conflict.  You witness the mind and thoughts for what they are and experience the world as it is.  You live moment to moment in the present.
2.  Includes stage 1, but with an ever present feeling of joy.
3.  Includes 1 and 2, but with a great silencing of the mind.

The Oneness state--

4.  Includes the first 3, but with the permanent feeling of being connected to everything.  You no longer feel separate.
5.  All of the above but often, or at will, you feel you are the observer, the observed, and the observation.  You become the song you hear, the dance you dance, the tree you see, etc.
6.  All of the above but often, or at will, you expand into Cosmic Consciousness and encompass all of creation.  You feel you have become all of life.

God-Realization--

6 +.  Your Inner Dweller, Higher Self, the God Within, etc., (whatever name you want to call it) comes forth and is very present in your life. Your life is a constant flow of Divine guidance.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I love the explanation of various voices of the ego within us in the below Video. The transcript is below:

Would you please clarify to us the meaning of oneness?

Answer: There are several degrees of oneness.

  • Let us first look at oneness within oneself.

Right now you are not an individual. You are divided within, you are a crowd inside, you who is the son, friend, father of so n so, you are the friend employer or employee of so n so. There are so many beings within who are all the time talking.

Then again there is your conscious and your unconscious self, your authentic and your inauthentic self all having a dialogue all the time. You are the dialogue. When the dialogue shuts down you become all one inside. Alone means all one. There is no more division.

  • At the next level you would find oneness with your fellow human beings.
  • At the third level you would discover you are one with the earth the tree, the water and the sky, you are one with nature.
  • You discover you and the universe are one.
  • Ultimately you discover you and God are one. You would discover You are God. I intend to take you step by step to the final oneness.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is so very true that there are so many voices within us. As the power of observation becomes more and more better within ourselves we being to perceive these voices. They are constantly happening within us even now as we speak. These voice are what are responsible from keeping us away from our true self, peace of mind or the energy within.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Met my guru

 

I go with Saravana to Rama Krishna Mutt last Sunday to hear a 1 hour talk from my Guru Sri Bodhinatha VeylanSwami and the experience was really great.

I sat in the calm hall @ Rama Krishna Mutt waiting for my saffron robed guru and his disciples to arrive and there was an atmosphere of peace flowing through my mind. Finally Gurudeva arrived and spoke about Hinduism Basics, some of his personal experiences with various devotees in different countries, the relevancy of Hinduism in modern era, the misconceptions in other religious leaders.

One example which I really loved was regarding a Catholic priest who mentions that He is waiting to die and go to heaven to be greeted by the Lord. Gurudeva says that Hinduism has a different perspective regarding this. For us every moment is Living and Seeing God – we don't have to die or wait to die in order to see and experience God. Constant experience of the divine is what Hinduism is all about.

Seeing my guru was like seeing Lord Siva Himself. While he speaks my breath was regulated and I could feel the energy in my spine – And the more attentive my awareness was locked on him. I hope to work under His guidance and have already started practicing Shum which is a mystical language which my guru’s Gurudeva discovered through his meditation. To summarize - Shum is a language of meditation, for meditation, by meditation. My guru immediately recognizes me to my pleasant surprise and I even got a photograph along with him – thanks to one of the other devotee there. Then i take his blessings by touching his feet. All this happens so fast and my guru is already leaving Bangalore back to Kapaa, Hawaii.

Overall it was a great experience. Thanks to Gurudeva for bestowing his darshan and blessings upon me. After this myself and Saravana went to a restaurant for to enjoy a good dinner.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Jupiter enters Capricorn


In Sanskrit it is "Guru" planet entering "Makar Rashi".

Lord Rama belonged to Makar Rashi and when this planetary event occurred (guru entering his rashi) Rama had to give up the kingdom and take up 14 years of forest exile.

From one perspective this appears like trouble, on another perspective, it means guru came into His life so that He could shine to His fullest potential which actually happened in Lord Rama's Life.

I myself am Makara rashi and Jupiter entered this constellation on Dec 6th 2008. And I'm beginning to see many changes in life. By the grace of my guru i hope to brave the challenges and emerge successful.

A colleague of mine described a nice observation about life. He says when we were born - "our parents didn't expect that their kids would grow up to become Software Engineers in reputed MNCs and earn 5/6 figure salaries". Then he says "Do you know who your great grandma is? What she did?" I said "No" And he says something like "Everything even relatives gets forgotten, all gets washed away by the all powerful time". Third example he gave was about some of his old colleague friends - who got sacked from a textile company in a town in Tamil Nadu due to "low" performance - the same guys ended up working in a top company in the US few years down the line. So the sacking actually helped them advance their careers. To summarize what i learnt from him was

While flowing with the river of life - its the unexpected things that happen to us that make the journey exciting and give invaluable insights. The river experiences calm waters, violent falls, smooth sand, tough rocks, every minute is full of unexpectedness. Yet it keeps flowing and finally merges into the Ocean.

There is lot of truth in his words, we struggle everyday in pursuit of happiness, everyone is seeking fulfillment in one form or the other, better job, better food, better clothing, better financial security, better mate etc - every single human wants fulfillment, yet all the hard work and achievements in attaining those fulfillments are forgotten soon by us and society and life itself which is temporary, is over. Even on obtaining the fulfillments - lets say a brand new car for example - the sense of ownership lasts for a few days and then slowly over time the longing for a better car starts, the emptiness again slowly takes over.

Related Posts : The River of Life

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Water drop on a lotus leaf

 

There is one song from a Tamil movie “Baba” which captured my attention after my mom casually explains its meaning while watching it on TV. Its a beautiful music composed by AR Rahman and the song lyrics go like this


“santoshi santoshi santoshi nee santosham kondadu sanyasi santoshi santoshi santoshi un santosham un kayill nee yosi.”


Meaning : Cherish the happiness which is inside you, No matter what happens – your happiness is in your hands – think about that. Its so very true that no matter how miserable the experiences are which are given by life – if the awareness is transferred to a pleasant experience – say a beautiful scenery from nature – you are still happy.

Example: Imagine you are in a dark prison alone with no one to speak/interact around. Now imagine that while sitting there you are totally in control of your mind and you imagine a beautiful beach in Hawaii. You imagine it so perfectly that you can see the waves coming and washing your feet, the slippery sand pulling your feet inside, the beautiful trees on the coast etc – And guess what – you are actually happy as long as you continue to imagine it and the dark cell does not exist.

The above is just a small example which summarizes that your happiness is in your hands. There are many people today who even though in a beautiful beach – instead of enjoying the beach – they are actually thinking of some depressing event that happened in their life in the past.

The next important lines of the same song which gives a much important message goes like this.


“maya maya ella maya, chaya chaya chaya ella chaya, pattum padamaley tottum todamaley, tamare eley tannir pol nee votthi votthamalliru”


Meaning : Everything around is an illusion, everything around is just your own (mind’s) reflection. Like a drop of water on top of a lotus plant leaf – which is Touching the leaf and yet staying untouched, live your life in (actinic) love yet free of attachments.



 


Illustration: A drop of water on a lotus plant leaf which is touching the leaf yet remains untouched as it does not leave any traces of itself when it moves around on the leaf.



Friday, November 28, 2008

Controlling Anger

 

Yesterday, a good friend of mine wants to know how to control Anger. I explained that its not a one line answer and it needs a detailed explanation. All the explanation below is directly from my Guru – in his book “Gurudevas-ToolBox” which is available at himalayan academy website.

ANGER EXISTS IN THE LOWER CHAKRAS

Angry all the time? smileys (79)

Anger, I have observed, is the most difficult fault for people to overcome, because it comes in so many different forms: pouting, long silences, shouting, yelling, swearing and more.

Those who remain prone to anger should not do raja yoga or any form of intensive mantra, japa, or pranayama amplification of the energies into higher chakras—lest that collective energy plummet into the corresponding lower chakras and be vented through fear, anger and jealousy.

My satguru instructed,
“Do good to all. God is there within you. Don’t kill. Don’t harbor anger.”  


There are eight rungs of anger on the “violence ladder:” sneaky anger, the cold shoulder, blaming and shaming, swearing, screaming and yelling, demands and threats, chasing and holding, partly controlled violence, and blind rage. Some people are just angry all the time because they live in the lower nature, constantly engaged in mental criticism and arguments.
Anger makes a person cunning in his thinking, and of course the predominant underlying quality of anger is fear. He is always afraid of something. It is generally something that may happen or is going to happen. He is always in conflict with someone. These are the motivating forces of the conscious mind: anger and fear. Most people live in the conscious mind unconsciously.


Anger is also, like fear, an instinctive control, and at one time served its purpose. The onrush of anger served to protect man’s private interests in critical situations by injecting adrenaline into his blood and thus preparing him for defense. But as man evolves closer to his real, actinic being, he discovers that actinic love, understanding, compassion and wisdom are higher qualities than anger. Anger can eventually be controlled by putting a sum of money—five dollars, for example—in a jar each time one becomes angry and then donating that money to an orphanage. It soon gets too expensive to get angry. However, for devotees who are wealthy, that doesn’t work. For them, I’ve found the penance of fasting for the next meal after they get angry works. We all know the refined, uplifting feeling of bhakti. Every religious person in the world has experienced this at one time or another. It is the total surrendering of oneself to God and the Gods. As the soul emerges out of the lower aspects of the instinctive mind, the muladhara chakra begins to unfold because of the bhakti that has been awakened through daily worship and sadhana. Admission and honest confession then bring up repentant feelings through the  subsuperconscious mind quite unbidden. When this happens within the devotee, it is truly a boon, marking progress on the spiritual path. Confession, the voice of the soul, can now be heard. As the intellect clears, the honest truths of experience, formerly hidden to oneself as well as to others, are revealed. The soul, the conscience, emerges in all honesty and remorsefully confesses the burdens it has been carrying. Yes, confession is truly the voice of the soul. Nothing is hidden to oneself when dharma supersedes adharma.


The entire book (Gurudevas Toolbox) is available for free download in PDF form at this link. click here to get the same. It also explains how to conquer the lower emotion of “uncontrollable fear” which is very common in women.


Many more important free e-books are available in this link.

Related posts: Techniques for Mind control (Mindmap), Understanding is control.


Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Difficult Projects

 

Life offering me lot of difficult projects at work and also at home off late. These projects require undivided, zero distraction oriented attention in order to drive them to completion.

Though they are tough projects, its a great opportunity given by this great university of life to improve my concentration and willpower. My concentration has tremendously increased over the past weeks and I am able to hold awareness steady over my projects.

My guru says - This willpower and concentration thus cultivated from everyday life can be internalized later towards the final goal of self realization.

Here is an excerpt from “Merging with Siva” which talks about the same

 

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. Then we forget our inner goal of Self Realization because the subconscious becomes too ramified with, basically, our being disappointed in ourselves, or the willpower being so diversified, or awareness being so divided in many different ways that whatever we want to do never works out because there is not enough will, or shove, or centralization of energy, or awareness is not at attention over the project enough, to make it come into completion. A tremendous will is needed on the path of Self Realization, of drawing the forces of energy together, of drawing awareness away from that which it is aware of constantly, of finishing each job that we begin in the material world, and doing it well, so that we are content within ourselves. Make everything that you do satisfy the inner scrutiny of your inner being. Do a little more than you think that you are able to do. That brings forth just a little more will.


Related Posts : People with Willpower



Saturday, November 8, 2008

Various coverings


The goal of every aspirant on the spiritual path must be to identify and remain as “Awareness”. Gurudeva states that this is the the most basic aspect which one should strive for. There are many coverings around awareness which we end up identifying in life during the experiences that it offers. Where awareness flows – energy goes. The practice is to try to remain as awareness.
When awareness becomes conscious of the body, and identifies itself with it – all the instinctive tendencies such as survival, mate, sensual pleasure, reactions such self defense are alive.
When awareness becomes conscious of the Mental/Emotional body we identify ourselves with emotions such as anger, sadness, happiness, depression, loneliness, pride, arrogance, jealousy, revenge etc and they appear very real.
When awareness becomes conscious of the Intellect – we are aware of science, problem solving, scheming, politics, stock market, investing, reasoning, world affairs, management etc. People in this state of conscious believe “reasoning” is the only God. If its not reasonable its not acceptable. They are of the probing nature and most of it is induced by fear and insecurity. The intellectual world is never ending as it keeps adding onto itself. In the corporate world the better the reasoning capabilities and intellect of the person the more valuable he is deemed by the organization which hires him. Higher the intellect greater the paycheck.
When awareness becomes conscious in the Super-conscious regions – fine arts, music, creativity, soothsaying, intuitional-problem solving instead of reasoning-problem solving, dance, instrumental music, breakthrough inventions in science and technology comes naturally to a person. For those mystics who live in these areas every day and night – the world looks like a playground. Awareness seems to expand rapidly in these areas of super-consciousness and man feels one with the world. Everything falls under the right perspective. Everyone enters these areas during deep sleep but only mystics know to enter these areas consciously.
Simply put when awareness is not conscious/attached to any particular area of mind and free to travel to any area of the mind can enter the super-conscious regions.
When awareness is only aware of itself, by consciously being directed on itself – it dissolves in its own essence my guru says. God Siva's all-knowingness may be experienced for brief periods by the meditator who turns within to his own essence. The Tirumantiram explains, "When the soul attains Self-knowledge, then it becomes one with Siva. The malas perish, birth's cycle ends and the lustrous light of wisdom dawns." Aum Namah Sivaya.
So the first step is to identify and stay as awareness before we realize Lord Siva – my guru says. Its a pre-requisite to knowing Lord Siva. A mental picture which guru describes for awareness is a golden ball having 4 eyes in 4 directions.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Karma and Prayaschitta

Im moving in a very tough test offered by life now, though i take complete responsibility for whatever is happening to me - awareness is moving to areas that are unpleasant. I centre myself and try to relax a little and awareness is back to those states. There are strong temporary illusions that suddenly come in life, trouble the mind and go away. But the mark remains. Finding it difficult to stay like a child which can live continuously in the "now" as if nothing happened. So that shows i still have a long long way to go in this spiritual progress. 

From gurudeva:

What Is Sin? How Can We Atone for It?

Sin is the intentional transgression of divine law. There is no inherent or "original" sin. Neither is there mortal sin by which the soul is forever lost. Through sadhana, worship and austerities, sins can be atoned for. Aum.

Bhashya

What men term sin, the wise call ignorance. Man's true nature is not sullied by sin. Sin is related only to the lower, instinctive-intellectual nature as a transgression of dharma. Still, sin is real and to be avoided, for our wrongful actions return to us as sorrow through the law of karma. Sin is terminable, and its effects may be compensated for by penance, or prayashchitta, and good deeds which settle the karmic debt. The young soul, less in tune with his soul nature, is inclined toward sin; the old soul seldom transgresses divine law. Sins are the crippling distortions of intellect bound in emotion. When we sin, we take the energy and distort it to our instinctive favor. When we are unjust and mean, hateful and holding resentments year after year and no one but ourselves knows of our intrigue and corruption, we suffer. As the soul evolves, it eventually feels the great burden of faults and misdeeds and wishes to atone. Penance is performed, and the soul seeks absolution from society and beseeches God's exonerating grace. The Vedas say, "Loose me from my sin as from a bond that binds me. May my life swell the stream of your river of Right." Aum Namah Sivaya.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The need to Start Meditating

 

My guru says:

Desperate states of mind are disturbing many people these days. They are caught in emotional turmoil and entanglement, scarcely knowing how to get themselves out of it, or even fully realizing what state they are in. This condition, which often deteriorates as the years go by until nervous difficulties and mental illnesses set in, can be alleviated by the simple practice of meditation. Those who are content to live in a mesh of mental conflict, which is not only conscious but subconscious, will never get around to meditation, or even the preliminary step: concentration. But a person who is wise enough to struggle with his own mind to try to gain the mastery of his mind will learn the vital practice of meditation. Just a few moments each morning or evening enables him to cut the entangled conditions that creep into the conscious mind during the day. The consistent practice of meditation allows him to live in higher states of consciousness with increasing awareness and perception as the years go by.

Understanding is control

Monday, October 27, 2008

Happy Diwali

 

May Lord Ganesh take us all from darkness to light on this auspicious festival of Lights. A dim moon like light becomes visible in the inner vision as if being emanated at the top-centre of head on doing regular meditation. Let this light also become bright in everyone on this holy day. By His blessings i have started an additional tech blog. I call it Anahat which is symbolic of the chakra of Direct Cognition.

It is explained by yogis that for a person situated in this Anahat chakra – Knowledge comes from within - in intuitive flashes – and thinking is the result. Whereas for people in whom this chakra hasn't awakened yet – thinking is the cause and knowledge is the result. It saves lot of time to get the knowledge directly in flashes instead of thinking it over. So its important that this chakra awakens in a humans life time. He can use it to develop creative solutions for problems in the material world, to bring material goods to himself, come out with wonderful inventions and discoveries etc. As Albert Einstein says -

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

I guess all those successful scientists, inventors, people in art – such as great music directors, artists, knew this and did hide their sources.

 

Monday, October 20, 2008

Mind Map on Mind control

Thanks to Amit for pointing out this new software on Mind mapping and brainstorming. And I decide to use it to generate a mind map to control the mind itself ! Uploading version 1, will update it as and when i discover new methods from my gurudev.



Thursday, October 16, 2008

Vegetarianism

Even though this blog is meant to blog my experiences of the deeper studies of the mind. I dedicate this post to a friend of mine who wanted to know more about the reasons why scriptures advise not to embrace "Non-vegetarianism".

The following quotes from a Saivite Scripture called "Weavers Wisdom".



Related Posts : understanding ahimsa  and basics of sadhana in hinduism.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Mind - enemy or friend ?

No matter what happens to us out there in life, no matter how hard the experiences are given by life, no matter how difficult the tests are -- one thing is evident as every day passes, there is no greater enemy than our own uncontrolled minds. 
Nobody can be a bigger deterrent to your progress / peace than your own mind.

Understanding is control

 

Saturday, September 27, 2008

What is Sadhana?

"Sadhana is performing the same discipline over and over and over again. Just as we methodically exercise the physical body to build up its muscles, we perform spiritual disciplines over and over again to strengthen our spiritual, inner bodies."
- Gurudeva


http://gurudeva.org/taka/past/2008/February/February_08_2008/

Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Third Superconscious Experience


I visit Ganesha temple with mom yesterday evening and offer a letter to Him in the temple fire. Had lot of prayers written in it for many of my friends/relatives who were suffering. I had also included a prayer for myself at the end. 

And then the Night sleep comes amazingly peacefully and after an hour of sleep or so, i hear a high frequency "eee" sound which progressively becomes louder. Until there is all "eee" sound in my brain. At this point i'm awake and not asleep and feeling all the energy accumulated in the spine attempting to move from neck to head, but unable to. I remember Lord Ganesha at this point who is the controller of spinal kundalini energy, and from nowhere a voice tells me to "look at the back of the mind". I do it at that very moment -- and suddenly the energy gushes from spinal neck to the brain directly over my forehead and above. It was a beautiful experience --  with white light in my head though my room was pitch dark and i realize i am wide awake at that time. Then it (consciousness or awareness or energy) gushes back down from top of head to  the forehead and stays there for a while. As it stays there i can feel something rotating in the forehead for a few seconds and then it gushes back to the neck -- progressively the 'eee' sound's loudness also comes down. 



And this happens many more times -- awareness gushes to head - sound becomes louder - light becomes brighter - and then back again downward direction -- sound becomes feeble. 

According to my guru, it is the same experience which people high on drugs feel too -- and which is why they long for it. But in their case the awareness quickly starts moving to the lower chakras -- the ones below the muladhara -- which are the sources of depression, anxiety and fear. So in order to avoid these troubling states of mind -- they take more drugs and over time get addicted. The same experience but without the negative states can be attained naturally through meditation or deep sleep -- in my case. Its a beautiful state which is the source of all creativity and fine-art. All knowledge is present in the super conscious mind.

Here are the salient features of that wonderful experience. 

  • Loss of Bodily awareness -- only awareness of energy
  • Loss of Mental -- both conscious or subconscious awareness.
  • Awareness becomes pure awareness and stays so for a time.
  • Starts gushing up the spinal column.
  • Opening up of the mind in its entirety and discovering new states of the higher mind.
  • The high frequency 'eee' Sound progressively becoming louder.
  • The progressively brightening light in the head 
  • Lot of cosmic energy entering the body and relaxing every single vein, cell and nerve, etc

My guru says -- This is the state to be consciously attained through meditation, to be strived for and which is worth striving for. If by practice one is able to attain this anytime he wants easily by will -- many realms of creativity open up to the practicer -- such as fine arts, music, scientific invention, ability to see mind from the 4th dimension and see their own past or future effortlessly. There are many souls on earth today who have mastered this ability.

Thanks to my guru and Lord Ganesha for this beautiful experience.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Natural Cure for Common Cold


Courtesy : iVillage

Common cold used to be a big nightmare for me, never used to go even after 1 and a half weeks of misery, but now its gone 2 days ! -- its a miracle. Click here to know all details. In a nutshell here is what i learnt.

  • There is till date no cure discovered by science for common cold.
  • The best defense for cold is our own body (antibodies). But we need to wait patiently for 2 days. :-)
  • One of the ironies of nature -- common cold is caused by virus from water/infected people -- and cured by water :-)
  • The key to a quick recovery is not to allow the body get dehydrated by drinking more water.
  • Drugging oneself in beginning delays the recovery instead of accelerating.
Here are some facts which helped cure myself quickly
  • Common cold is primarily Viral in nature -- Caused by a Virus
  • Common cold (wet nose stage) pulls lot of water from the body. So body gets dehydrated.
  • Get plenty of water at this stage to prevent becoming dehydrated.
  • Better to avoid Coffee/Tea/Coke any caffeine related stuff which will assist dehydration.
  • If we drug our self initially -- the virus undergoes rapid mutation in a matter of hours (scientifically proved) and becomes immune to the newly consumed drug. So don't drug yourself.
  • If we allow body to get dehydrated -- mucus dries up -- leading to a bigger problem -- sinus and bacterial infection starts on the dry mucus in lungs and respiratory tract.
  • After mucus dries up -- intolerable cough starts which is very uncomfortable, however the initial symptoms of cold subside at this point and cough & flum dominate.
  • At cough stage -- bacterial attack has already occurred on the body -- so Antibiotics are  required to eliminate them.
  • In a span of 2 days body starts producing Antibodies to attack and kill the common cold Virus. These anti-bodies do their job well and cure us from cold :-)

Taking Vitamin C tabs prior to getting cold is known to prevent it -- but no proof of this yet from science. During a cold a hold soup, steam inhalation, coffee can just provide a temporary feeling of relief -- but no permanent cure -- this is because the virus can survive in those hot temperatures too !

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Experiencing "Now" with Nature

I have been unable to stay in the "now" for quite some time now, everything was in place, the purpose, the need, the plan etc -- but no execution. so i am where i am now today. 

Biggest barriers which have done their job well are are -- Bodily demands (such as sleep), subconscious thoughts, karma, bad habits, lack of focus, de-motivation, past failures etc etc. 

Was looking at beautiful nature snaps and it brought me back to the "now" atleast temporarily ...







Friday, August 29, 2008

A New outlook of life

By making the number of in-breath counts equal to out-breath counts -- and by holding the water-vapour-like-prana (blur and odic) just inhaled along with air in the solar plexus -- it is possible to effortlessly maintain concentration and willpower on a particular task for any desirable amount of time. Experienced this fact recently and realized its practical importance.


The only barriers that makes us lose focus from being awareness -- and force us to end up being the mind with its 60,000 useless thoughts we get on an average everyday -- and thereby prevent the "will" at the solar plexus to manifest "willpower" are
  1. Mental Arguments with oneself or others.
  2. Engaging mind in sexual fantasies.
  3. Consuming Non-vegetarian food / those veg food which grow below the earth.
That way we don't add more into the subconscious dross -- and end up removing stuff from it.

If this is followed correctly -- it becomes easy to detect the other barriers due to the newly acquired siddhi -- which is the power of observation. The other barriers that i came across were
  1. Thoughts/Beliefs implanted by society/parents in those early childhood days. These are tightly wired into our subconscious makeup - and some of them are plain erroneous.
  2. Our very intellect which brought us till here in life and its associated novelties.
  3. Strong Opinions/thoughts of people around us.
The intellect -- which is responsible for the "inner talk" in our mind can lead us on and on. Due to its being subtle in nature -- its more difficult to keep track of it and subdue it. In fact it may be happening this very moment as you read this post and you could still be unaware of it. But by a strong motivation and sheer will it quiets down eventually.

Thoughts, beliefs and goals that we have formed for ourselves in the past probably due to influence of family/relatives or sometimes books/novels also play an important role from capturing awareness in the mess of consciousness. One has to be there to understand what these subtleties mean.

Bottom-line is the more you remain the "watcher"/"awareness"/"energy", whatever you call it the more knowledge you receive in every minute of the day from this great University of Learning called Life.

Lord Krishna who recently celebrated His birthday in our home says these beautiful words in the Bhagavad Gita

When the yogi, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in Transcendence--devoid of all material desires--he is said to have attained yoga.


One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of false ego and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.


From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.


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.

As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent Self.


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.

Hare Krishna


Monday, August 18, 2008

The Donkey and the Carrot

The title describes the way we live life daily in the conscious mind. We get an experience, feel it for a while and wait for the next. We believe the next emotion / experience experienced will be the highest in our life. No matter how many emotions we experience, the next set of those emotional experiences will be the high point of our entire life, and we are sure of it! That is the conscious mind.

This way the conscious mind carries us minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day, year after year, life after life. Novelty is its nature and ramification is its result. We can always find in the conscious mind some distraction to please us, to intrigue us, to dominate our awareness of other states of consciousness. And we don't have to look very hard to find it.

When we are in the conscious mind, we are like a donkey with a carrot in front of our nose. We are always walking to try to get that carrot. We are never satisfied, and we are never happy. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

While in the conscious mind -- We see people, we reason and relate our own condition with theirs, we feel sad when we find them to be in a better state "relatively". "Relative agony" is the key word which we follow unknowingly in our conscious mind. No matter how fortunate we have been, we feel unlucky when we discover that we find someone who is "relatively" more fortunate than ourselves, we feel ourselves as unlucky when we discover that we find a friend marry someone who is "relatively" well off or if we never got one, we say "they are so lucky -- wish i had that kind of luck too", no matter how much we earn we feel unlucky when we learn about "relatively" better hikes to a friend in a neighboring company. When we live in the conscious mind, we only surmise. We make guesses. We are never quite sure if we are right. That is the conscious mind, the part of you which you dare to think is real. It leads us on and on and on, life after life after life after life after life after life after life.




The mystic's goal is to control awareness while he is in the conscious mind -- to know where he is in consciousness. When he finds he is aware in the conscious mind, and the five senses have become his ruler, he then controls his awareness within the conscious mind itself. There are many way he does this -- breath control, enquiry, remembering and pondering on a chosen ishta devata (diety) etc.

A beautiful method below from my guru about how to control mind on the conscious plane.

There is a Saivite hermit, the venerable Markanduswami, living in a humble mud hut in Sri Lanka. He is very old, and was for many years a disciple of Jnanaguru Yogaswami. In fact, his every utterance is a quote from his guru. One afternoon at his hut he described Yogaswami's approach to dealing with thought during meditation. He said, "Yogaswami said, 'Realize Self by self. You want to read this book, that book and all these books. The Book of Infinite Knowledge is here (pointing to his chest). You'd better open your own book.' The prescription he gave me to open that book is this: 'When you are in meditation, you watch the mind. Here and there the mind is hopping. One, two, three,...a hundred. In a few seconds the mind goes to a hundred places. Let him be. You also watch very carefully. Here and there this mind is running. Don't forget Self for a second. Let him go anywhere, but if he goes to a hundred places, you must follow him to a hundred places. You must not miss even a single one. Follow him and note, He is going here. Now he is going there.' You must not miss even a single one. That is the prescription Satguru Yogaswami gave me to open this inner book. He said, 'Watch very attentively and learn to pick up things coming from within. Those messages are very valuable. You can't value them. Realize Self by self and open this inner book. Why don't you open your own book? Why don't you make use of it? Why don't you open your own book? What an easy path I am prescribing for you!' "



Thursday, August 14, 2008

People with Willpower

There are many individuals on earth who have consistently lived life such that their awareness was a manifestation of willpower. They consistently attain their dreams and desires one after another. Such individuals are functioning on the manipura chakra - the realm of willpower. Their focus on a project can last as long as they want it to -- to drive the project to successful completion.

It is such people who become successful in meditation and self realization -- my guru says.

Examples of such folks whom i have witnessed in life are : Bjarne Stroustoup (C++ inventor), James Gosling (Java Inventor), Donald Knuth (Author of the book -- considered as the marvel of computer science called "The Art of Computer Programming"), Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft), Rutherford (famous physicist), Randy Pausch (The Carnigie Mellon University Professor who recently passed away due to cancer)

Mr Randy Pausch explains how to attain life's dreams by giving his own life as an example. Mr Pausch is one of the key guys responsible for the Alice Project. He was a Virtual Reality expert and has contributed a lot to Electronic Arts (EA) the company which develops 3D games such as Road Rash, The Sims -- all of which are successfull. Some of the technology from his and his students work was used in the Spider Man III movie as well.

More about him his life here

Below is the famous lecture he delivered at Carnigie Mellon University called as "The Last Lecture"



Monday, August 11, 2008

Perceiving vs. Judging

There are a few people whom i have come across in my experiences of life -- who prefer perceiving to judgment. When someone comes to us with a problem or when life offers problems -- there are two classes of people classified based on how they respond to the circumstance
  • Those who use the intellect and 'known' ways of man to tackle the issue. When the problem is being explained or showing up they go to the past/history to find out if they know how to solve it based on past experience.
  • The creative souls, who look at the problem like a baby looking at the piece of plaything for the first time. They talk less inside them and outside to the world, they perceive and don't judge. The intellect is present but takes a back seat. Intuition takes the front seat.
The people who belong to the latter are the ones who can come out with creative - out-of-the-box solutions. They are not at majority in the society - but they do exist. People like Albert Einstein, Lalu Prasad Yadav are some examples.

Why Lalu Prasad Yadav? -- Well i was watching this show on TV sometime back -- "Kya Aap Panchvi Pass Se Tez Hain" hosted by Shahrukh Khan. Shahrukh is by default a very intellectual well read guy, and when he tends to do the show there is a lot of talking he does and quick witted responses from him to entertain people. But on the last day of the show -- Lalu was supposed to be on the hot seat. A sense of calm prevailed as soon as Lalu started answering Shahrukh's questions. It was like Shahrukh frames a question and explains it for like 2 minutes and Lalu answers it after a few seconds of pause in a short answer lasting less than 5 seconds. Lalu won around 50,00,000 Rupees from the show answering every answer correct. Its not by surprise that he has become the most preferred Railway minister and converted the industry into profit making machine from a loss making one. Various Top IIM institutes and B-schools today take Lalu's Railway management system as a case study in their MBA programs. Lalu according to me is a creative and evolved soul. One of those few fellows who has tuned himself to the river of life. He just really doesn't care if people make fun of him, he attends all the shows he is called to without a sense of superiority or ego and manages to win them and hearts of the people in his own style. He is an example of those rare folks who take life as it comes and face difficult experiences positively. My mom later told me that she has read somewhere that Lalu had once proclaimed to few of his friends and close associates that Lord Siva gave him His vision once. Whether this is true or not - but lalu definitely is an evolved soul from the point of view of my perception.

Another Lady who i know to have this sense of intuition / calmness of mind is Sai Mata of Nooliveedu Village -- a staunch devotee of Sathya Sai / Shirdi Sai Baba.

People who function in the intuitive states of mind, who live two thirds within are closer to the perfection, the lifes goal -- Self realization than those who are not.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Scared of Life ?

Hindu Gods are simply great intelligent beings. Through their form and dressing they convey something to human beings. All ancient temples had this beauty and one thing common amongst them -- Linking the external world to the internal. In any Siva temple, the Nandi (which represents the ego) is the biggest when it is far outside the temple and away from the God, its size reduces when we find another Nandi closer to the God inside the temple, and it size is the smallest when in front of God. This actually is symbolic of how the ego naturally reduces as an individual approaches God internal to him in his own life as he evolves towards Self realization.

I have seen many of my friends, relatives, even parents mostly spend time in the fears of future, avoiding certain people, favoring certain experiences to another, worried about their seemingly not-so-perfect past. They believe in God and the Gods more out of fear of the Gods (which they attribute the difficult experiences of their life to) than out of Love. In reality what they are really fearing is their own subconscious mind and the experiences repressed in it !

A devotee who firmly believes in the law of karma knows that the Gods do nothing bad, they are more evolved intelligent souls who are waiting for humanity to catch up and tune into their vast intelligence and wisdom. A true devotee doesn't blame anyone for what happens to him as he knows that whatever happens to him is a result of his own making. Equipped with this wisdom, he bravely faces those challenges and meets them head-on rather than avoiding it.

Lord Siva's form signifies this subtle secret, about how a human should live his life --- facing challenges head-on. A poisonous snake is symbolic of the difficulties and challenging experiences in life which generally people like to avoid/escape. By picking the poisonous snake with His hands and making it His ornamental necklace -- Lord Siva symbolically displays how to truly live life king size by not being afraid of the subconscious ! Then came a ferocious tiger to pounce upon Him (another symbol of a greater difficulty) -- Lord Siva rips the tiger apart and makes the tiger skin His costume with a smile of confidence. (This story is described in one of the scriptures).

The below teaching from my beloved guru who is a form of Lord Siva Himself, is something which i am applying in my life every minute and have also trained my mom to do the same. Undoubtedly she has ceased being depressed/fearful over the past week !

Do not be afraid of the subconscious. It is useless to be afraid of the past. If memories come up from the subconscious as if they happened yesterday, and you begin reacting emotionally and even physically all over again, say to yourself, "Welcome, welcome, welcome, memory from the past. My goodness, you're shaking my emotional body. I remember going through these emotional states years ago, and here we are reliving this film over again. But now I am on the spiritual path to enlightenment. I am the Self. One day I'm going to realize it fully. I only live in this physical body. I use these emotions, but I won't be used by them. They are my tools. So here you are, my memory pattern, trying to make me feel like I did five years ago before I reprogrammed my subconscious and awakened spiritually. Oh, memory from the past, you have tested me well. Thank you." Then, like a good secretary, write down on a piece of paper everything you can remember about these experiences that have come before your vision, and burn the paper when you have finished. Write down the entire experience that you are reacting to emotionally.

This paper-burning serves three purposes. First, it is symbolic to the subconscious that you are not going to react anymore to that particular problem. You have, through the act of writing it down, taken it out of the subconscious. Second, burning the paper means that no one else will read it, which might cause other problems. It also means that through the act of burning subconscious memories, you have released them forever.

When you begin to meditate, you become keen and perceptive enough to begin to see within yourself. Occasionally, you will see into the subconscious area and begin emotionally to relive the past. This means that many of the predominantly strong memory and reactionary patterns of the past loom up before you, one after another, and you may begin to react to them all over again, emotionally and even physically. These are not real experiences. It is only a layer of the subconscious exposing itself to your inner vision, indicating that reprogramming is needed. Handle each layer dynamically. Welcome the thoughts and accompanying feelings in a hospitable way. Do not fear them or regret them, and certainly do not criticize yourself for having them. Simply remove them from the subconscious by writing them down and burning the paper. The reaction will subside, but the memory will linger as an education upon which you can formulate decisions for the future, thus avoiding the same problem.



Friday, July 11, 2008

All is good

This was a good learning which came out from the super-conscious mind today, I had a dear old friend who was quite regularly keeping in touch with me. Then things unfolded in such a way that i reacted regarding a particular event that was common to our lives. I was sticking to my viewpoint and she was sticking to hers. One thing led to the other until the mutual disagreement became strong. This made this friend of mine stop keeping in touch with me, though i didn't do the same.

Somehow this thought was in the back of my subconscious affecting me everyday. My Mind never agreed that I was wrong. And so it rationalized that there was no need to apologize.

Then while focusing on the "eee" sound in my meditation, an intuitive thought struck me in my meditation that - "all is good", if a circumstance or event in life is affecting me, it is actually making me unfold faster spiritually as it will make me try harder to center myself. If nothing in the world affects me, then my unfoldment would definitely be slow.

Second learning is If something affects me and makes me react, then given the same circumstances i would do the same action - which i now perceive as a problem affecting me. In other words, whatever affects us and makes us react is a reflection of our own subconscious attitudes. The sore spot is located there - in the subconscious mind. That is where the treatment is required.

This again proves what my guru said -- The world is our university.

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.



Sunday, July 6, 2008

Amazing Dream

I could not sleep till late night out of excitement that my parents were returning from Singapore the next day and i was going there early morning to pick them.

But sometime early morning before i got up, i had an amazing dream. Now i know my guru and practice His teachings for nearly 3 years. For the 2nd time in 3 years i could clearly see my guru face to face in my dream. It was more of an astral body meeting than a dream, as i could feel his feet.

I, in my dream with a big million dollar smile when i see him, speak to Him how much i love His teaching, how much it has influenced my life - "Merging with Siva" for a long time now. I tell him how much fortunate I am to meet Him in person which is the rarest of opportunities. And in my mind its the year 2001 when He was still alive on earth. And I'm telling Him thanks for giving me His darshan before His leaving the earthly body. At that point, in that pleasant meeting i am shedding tears in joy seeing my long awaited guru to whom I'm filled with love and who is responsible for whatever i have understood about the world, life and its constant learnings. Who is responsible for everything i am today.

i had been to ISCKON before i met my guru, i had learnt about Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Vivekananda- before i met my guru, i had learnt about the great devotees of Lord Vishnu -- Ambarisa, Dhruv, Prahllad, Arjun, Hanuman, Mira bai, had read the Gita, but there was something missing -- i didnt know how i could love an un-seen God -- True there are many devotees in history who have loved God, who have set an example of Bhakti, but i was not sure how can i love someone whom i have never seen, never had a conversation with, not even sure existent or non-existent ? I also had many doubts as to why people who do wrong and dont care about anyone other than themselves, I,Me,Myself types -- often grow in life and not the genuinely good souls? It was only this great Guru of Saiva Sampradaya, who was one of the great kings of the Chola Dynasty in one of his previous lives and who as the king built the Chidambaram temple -- He was the one who really dispelled all my doubts with precise answers that i was looking for.

Coming back to the dream. I tell him from my thoughts that He was the one who is responsible to make me understand that the world is my University. All this telepathic conversation happening so fast. So much being conveyed in a short time. Then i see his eyes looking at me and filled with tears flowing. Thats when i realize that how super-sensitive my guru is - a characteristic of a pure devotee. My love overflows for Him and His for me -- and without thinking further, I bow down and touch his feet. I can see his feet isn't touching the ground. Its about two inches above the ground. While I'm observing it, He places both his palm fingers on my backbone to bless me. At that moment -- suddenly i feel a gush of energy entering my body through his fingers. It was one of the most spectacular feelings. The energy was stimulating all the chakras simultaneously. Yet it was unfathomable and i didnt exactly understand what exactly was being received by me.

That sudden gush of energy brought me back into my conscious mind and i woke up from that dream. Tried closing eyes again expecting the wonderful dream to continue but of no avail.

i dedicate the blog post at my gurudeva's feet which is floating in mid air - 2 inches above earth. And pray that He come again and again in my visions to guide me. I will end this post with a beautiful teaching regarding the mind - from my guru, but attempted in my own words.


There is but one mind. The consciousness or the ego travels in its various phases. One-tenth of this mind which is of the conscious plane, in ramification, is carried on by its own novelty. The goal is to control the conscious mind and be consciously conscious.


Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Understanding is Control

My guru once said -- There are many mystics in the world who have had no formal training and yet seem to unfold inwardly very rapidly simply by learning the 5 states of mind, how to distinguish one from another, and how to move awareness within them consciously and systematically. They are participating in and enjoying some of the benefits of being able to experience step-by-step direct cognition of the five states of mind -- conscious mind, subconscious mind, sub of the subconscious mind, subsuperconscious mind and superconscious mind.

Concentrate upon that mind, observe the thoughts, feelings and actions from within and know that your mind is yours to use to the extent you know how to control it using the will.

Why must you study the mind ?

Why must you study the mind ? because understanding alone is fifty percent control of the mind. This understanding is necessary to impress the subconscious deeply enough to secure awareness so that spiritual strength continues to come from within.

"Understanding is Control"

The way mystics use the mind is like this - When a situation comes up - observe how the conscious mind looks at it. Then they ask how the subconscious mind looks at it. Pondering further they inquire how the super conscious looks at it. Through this process they get the clear picture of what exactly happened and whether it must be taken seriously or not. The situation was perhaps -- just a subconscious reaction such as an anger towards someone -- so you forgive yourself and forget it. The subconscious was the problem in this case.

It is the super conscious intuitive understanding that helps making such judgments.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Evolution of Soul

Reality of God comprises three perfections - Parasiva (Absolute, Transcendent Reality), Satchidananda (Immanent Love) and Paramesvara (Primal Soul) - and man's soul is already perfect in its undifferentiated identity with Parasiva and Satchidananda, although this identity is concealed from us by our fascination with the world of form. Parasiva and Satchidananda are not aspects of the evolving soul, but its very nucleus - which does not change or evolve.

The evolution of the soul lies in the maturing of its intrinsic Godliness over the course of many lifetimes and beyond, so that it finally becomes indistinguishable from God Siva's third perfection, the Primal Soul. The primary goal of Gurudeva’s monistic Saivism is attaining the life-transforming realization of one's identity - in perfect nondifferentiation - with Parasiva. “We are That. We don’t become That.” This is termed Self Realization (enlightenment), and may grant moksha, permanent liberation from the cycles of birth and death. A secondary goal is the realization of Satchidananda, a unitive experience within superconsciousness in which perfect Truth, knowledge and bliss are known.

Therefore, the path of monistic Saivism leads the seeker to the realization of all three perfections of the Reality of God: Satchidananda first, then Parasiva, with the final goal of Paramesvara obtained long after moksha.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

The Mind's Three Phases

There are many souls living on earth who are young, who are living in their instinctive minds - exhibiting anger, jealousy, depression and all the qualities associated with it. Just a few days ago i saw a man kicking another man on the road due to a minor accident. The instinctive qualities seem to be widely spread among people -- and the notion of more aggressive the better seems to be prevalent.

Then we come across another section of people who are in the intellectual mind. The intellectual mind is complex and vast. Every day is a learning and there is so much to learn that it usually takes a lifetime or more in just accumulating intellectual knowledge itself. Many souls today live this way -- learning and teaching what they have discovered or learnt. An example which i came across recently is Respected Sir Don Knuth -- who has written the famous volumes of the book "The art of computer programming". If you read his article here at Wikipedia, you will notice how he had given up checking his email to completely focus on finishing his book which will be useful for students/professionals even 50-100 years from now. So many people live life this way by spending almost the entire lifetime.

Then come the few rare souls who have developed the intuitive mind, geniuses who discover new insights from the depths of their own superconscious mind. Here are the explanations of the three phases of the mind from my beloved guru.

The Minds three Phases

The totality of the mind is vast and complicated. However, it is helpful to look at the entirety of the mind in three basic phases: the instinctive, the intellectual and the intuitive. The instinctive mind is easy to become aware of and experience. It includes the impulses of our physical body, our cravings, our desires, our digestive system, and our emotional mechanism that works through the physical body. The systems of elimination and blood circulation and the regulation of the heartbeat are all within the instinctive mind. This phase of mind functions automatically, or instinctively. It is as much alive in the animal kingdom as among humans.

Man alone develops the intellectual mind and is responsible for its composition as he lives along through life. This phase is a mixture of man's instinctive desires and cravings coupled with the knowledge he has gained from others and from his own intuitive discoveries. Within man's intellect, he organizes a vast amount of knowledge that begins to accumulate from a very early age. Ninety percent of this knowledge deals with the externality of the world and mind itself. The intellect can consume most of man's time through an incarnation, and usually does, lifetime after lifetime.

The intuitive, or superconscious, phase is even more complex, more organized, more refined than the instinctive or intellectual phases. It is mystically known as the mind of light, for when one is in this state of mind, he may see light within his head, and sometimes throughout the entirety of his physical body, if his inner sight is developed enough. Otherwise, he just begins to feel good all over, as actinic energy permeates his nervous system. When intuitive flashes come, he knows the next thing to be done in a creative activity. This is the superconscious area of the mind. When man is extremely perceptive, tremendously creative and knowledge seems to come to him from the inside of himself spontaneously, he is a superconscious being.

Instinctive is a word that some may understand and others take offense at. Don't. It only means "natural or innate," naming the drives and impulses that order the animal world and the physical and lower astral aspects of humans. For example, self-preservation, procreation, hunger and thirst, as well as the emotions of greed, hatred, anger, fear, lust and jealousy, are all instinctive forces. They are very real in animals and humans alike. When the mind functions instinctively, it is controlled by the habit impressions made in the subconscious during its journey through the experiences of life. Instinctive also means that the driving force comes from the sexual nature. The nature is turned in that direction subconsciously, even though the conscious mind may not be cognizant of the fact. It also means that in the event of an emergency, the animal nature would take over completely, being jarred loose from lack of what I term "mind-control," or from what might be called self-control.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Unleashing Willpower at any time

I learnt many things from my guru yesterday, want to write it down in my own words. Understanding His words in a true sense and actually realizing it took a lot of time. But it eventually sank in me. Thank you gurudeva for enlightening me time and again, and rescuing me in times when i had got the feeling of almost giving up.

Energy, awareness and willpower are one and the same.
  • When we are subconsciously conscious that we are a super-conscious being, and
  • the subconscious mind has accepted the new programming that energy, willpower and awareness are one and the same thing,
  • when the subconscious mind has accepted the fact that the mind was all finished long ago in all its phases of manifestation, from the refined to the gross
-- then AND ONLY THEN the subconscious begins working as a pure channel, so to speak, for super consciousness. Awareness can then flow in a very positive, in a very direct, way.

From these sayings i realized that if i need my subconscious to understand this, then all that i have to do is - meditate on the fact --- especially on those areas of the mind where i tend to identify myself with --- that they are just a region in the mind and mind was all over long back in all stages of manifestation and that novelty is its nature. This when done repeatedly for a long time will finally make the subconscious believe in the way my guru has mentioned. This is the key to keep the awareness - a powerful will at all times.

Humble salutations at my gurus feet for cutting my gross mind with this knowledge.
Second Learning:
People who have really worked hard and attained lot of success in life by their own willpower are the ones who are at a stage where they are ready to exit the "Anava Marga" - or the path of the ego. These are the souls who know how to use will for getting what they want. After attaining immeasurable success and wealth and fulfillment for whatever they had desired such as money, power etc, the desire for material things slowly wanes. Their desire for wealth, fame or money wanes in a natural way. If a person is still desiring all this then he has just started on the anava Marga for he hasn't seen fulfillment yet. A person below the Anava Marga is confused in life, doesn't have a well defined goal yet, will never manifest a strong desire for attaining anything worthwhile in this lifetime.

So its important for people who are below the path of Anava to manifest a well defined desire, a goal and strive to achieve it. The desire should and will go only after fulfillment and that's when we exit he Marga and go to the higher paths of selfless bhakti, kriya and yoga. If a person suppresses his desires for things outwardly- because that's what the society thought "desire less", but buried in his subconscious -- is the desire for things, fame/money -- then he/she is nowhere progressing. Manifest a well defined noble desire -- exhibit willpower and achieve it. This is the way to succeed in life. Such a person prospers both materially and spiritually. Those are the kind of people who can execute big projects and drive them to completion by pure willpower. Such people are the ones who can become extremely successful in meditation.


Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Quotes from Confucius

courtesy : http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Confucius/

Confucius' quotes have often filled me with energy and motivation, when i'm feeling low on will. His quotes are simple yet they have opened my eyes when i see the mistakes i did in my life. I have put some of them which are really important to me in my life.

* I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

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

* Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.

* Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.

* Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.

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

* Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

* Have no friends not equal to yourself.

* He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed.






Friday, June 6, 2008

The Scorpio Ego

My Big Stupid Ego
I came to know many things about myself (my ego) which i was not consciously knowing. Both the negatives and positives. I did this by learning my zodiac and studying how much i match up. Most things i must say are true. This article has answered many questions that i had about myself. I feel a good study of my own ego is important for me to progress spiritually as it makes me aware of my strengths and shortcomings.

Accepting ones short comings by becoming conscious of it - is actually one of the practices recommended by the great rishi's and seers of the past.

Why am i so curious and interested in learning about Mysteries of creation, philosophy and human existence ?

Scorpio was born knowing the secrets of life and death, and with the ability to conquer both if he chooses. But astrology constantly advises him that "he must know that he knows." The ancient mysteries fascinate his brilliant mind. Out of his powerful empathy with human nature grows the outstanding detective, the composer of great musical works, literature of depth and permanence, or the actor who projects with unusual dramatic intensity. Some­times he lives alone, near the sea, as strong and as silent as the tides. Sometimes he faces the public, wearing a mask of calm reserve and control, to hide his intense desire to win. He can be a politician or a television star, an under­taker or a bartender, but he'll manage to top all his com­petitors. And hell do it so effortlessly it will seem like an act of fate rather than his own powerful will.

Scorpio is deeply interested in religion, intensely curious about all phases of life and death, passionately concerned with sex and violently drawn by a desire to reform. Yet he's also heroic, dedicated to ties of family and love, and gently protective of children and weaker souls. He can be a saint or a sinner. He can experiment with the darkest mysteries this side of Hades, or he can scathingly revile sin and decadence. Whether he emotes from a pulpit, at a business meeting, or from a stage, his hypnotic appeal pierces through his audience, literally transfixing or trans­figuring them. It's really rather frightening. Even if the Scorpio has temporarily allowed bitterness, drink or melan­choly to drag him into the Bowery, you can bet your old copy of Dante's Inferno that the other bums will clear a path when they see him coming.

Scorpios can bewilder you with his twin Scorpio traits of passion and reason. He's master of both: intellect and emotions rule him equally. Scorpio is more than intelligent. If he's a highly evolved specimen, he's also deeply philosophical, concerned with mysteries of existence, and he'll come close to knowing the answers.

His Sun position gives him several paths to follow. He can imitate the nocturnal scorpion, who will sting others and even gong himself to death for the pure pleasure of stinging - or he can imitate the glorious, soaring path of his symbolic eagle, who rises above earthly limitations, and uses his strength wisely and justly.

Great generals like MacArthur, presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and scientists like Madame Curie and Jonas Salk are eagles. More United States presidents have been born under this sign than any other.


No matter what my dad, mom, aunt, relatives say or advise or think about me, i always do and execute what i think is right based on my own observation of life. i do respect their opinions, but end of the day thats what they are - "opinions". And everyone has one. Why am i so ?

Every Scorpio is a law unto himself, and completely un­concerned with what others think of him. He would like to be respected as a good, solid citizen, but if it interferes with any of his intense ideas or goals, then he couldn't care less, and those who gossip can just go to the place Pluto rules. None of his important decisions are hampered by the opinions of his friends, relatives, neighbors or enemies. I'm sorry to say, not even by you. Don't run away yet. Such beautiful self-containment and sureness of purpose can create a mighty attractive, free spirit who's not always fussing about what people think. Are honesty and courage and integrity such bad bargains? They may have lost a little of their sparkle in today's marketplace, but rub off the dust they've collected, and you can still get them appraised as genuine.

Next, listen to him speak. The tone can be velvety soft, husky or sharply cutting, the speech slow and measured or clipped and staccato, but what he says will never be self-effacing. Scorpio has total ego. He knows what he is and he knows what he is not, and nothing anyone else thinks will change this knowledge. Insults roll right off his back, and compliments don't move him a fraction of an inch. He needs no one to tell him his vices or his virtues. At best, he'll calmly agree with your appraisal; at worst, he'll suspect your motives.


I have the habit of facing difficulties instead of running away from them. I have been like that since childhood. It sometimes feels better to avoid but i dont. Why i like to face my difficulties head on rather than avoiding them ?

When experiences becomes intense after a meditation and sensitivity levels increase, difficulties seem to get magnified. Many people i know give up meditation in order to avoid the miserable feelings. But somehow i never did. I always felt these experiences even though making me feel miserable and affecting me, are actually important for my own spiritual evolution. I liked this excerpt below which points out that trait.

It's quite an experience to see the Scorpio man operate under adversity's black clouds. While others are mumbling and crumbling and grumbling, he is at his forceful, cou­rageous best. He seldom wallows in envy or self-pity, and he doesn't happen to think that life owes him a single farthing. You can just imagine how much time that saves. Instead of pouting in hurt anger when real troubles hit, he meets them head on. Conquer them? But of course.

That's what he was born to do.

I have had this experience in the recent past. I can be extremely possessive and jealous, which naturally i want to avoid. Why am i so possessive about people i deeply love and respect ?

Scorpio is intensely loyal to friends. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Some of them do this literally, for friends, rela­tives or loved ones-in battle or in a civilian crisis. The Scorpio soldier leaps instantly, instinctively, to brave the bullets and drag his buddy to safety. The Scorpio fireman gives his life to rescue the child in the burning building. Sometimes it seems Pluto people unconsciously seek vio­lence deliberately, as a challenge to their strength.

He's fiercely possessive of what he believes to be his, whether its his love or just success, but his ambition is never obvious. He quietly waits for the chance to move ahead all the while he serves, knowing he is qualified for the position above him. He takes control slowly, but very surely. Scorpio can do just about anything he wants to do. If he really wants it, it's most definitely no longer a dream. The dark, magical and mysterious power of Pluto turns desire into reality with cool, careful, fixed intent.


I remember when i liked a project in college, i was working with so much passion during nights on it that i did'nt know it was morning. Same applied when during my vacation at school i was playing a video game which i really loved. And my parents would often blame me and call me crazy for getting so deep into it. Why can i get so passionate about things i love ?

If you're in love with a Scorpio male and the word passion frightens you, put on your track shoes and run as if King Kong were pursuing you. He is.

I'm not speaking of romantic passion alone, though that may be at the head of the list. I also refer to pas­sionate intensity about politics, work, philosophy, friendship, religion, food, relatives, children, clothing, life, death and any other categories you can think up. A Scorpio man is not exactly what your psyche needs if you're repelled by emotional excess. Don't look back. Just run.


I have myself seen many of my Scorpio friends who have this trait which seems to be very common. Many people have even pointed this out in me. Its the eyes.


Look at the eyes. They can be green, blue, brown or black, but they'll be piercing with hypnotic intensity. Most people feel nervous and ill at ease under Scorpio's steady gaze. You'll have to break the spell and look away first. He'll out stare you every time. It's a foolproof identifica­tion of the Pluto personality. Scorpio eyes bore deeply into you, mercilessly, as if they're penetrating your very soul They are.


I get angry very rarely. And i don't like it. Though i have managed to control my anger and revenge, i know when i'm angry and really want to seek revenge, i can really destroy the whole infrastructure of a person. Why is this revenge and destructive nature a part of my ego?

Scorpio never forgets a gift or a kindness, and it's richly rewarded. Conversely, he also remembers an injury or an injustice, but there are different ways of reacting. The eagle will crush the enemy so the enemy learns never to hurt him again, win the fight, and leave the defeated to go his own way. The deadly nocturnal scorpion will first sting, then plan destruction, then sting again. He's not content with merely evening the score. He must totally destroy the enemy, or at least top him.

The typical scorpion stinger will lie awake nights figuring how to get even. If a neighbor deliberately scrapes his fender, he'll scrape two fenders on the neighbor's car the next day, and maybe drive over his carefully pruned hedges for good measure.

These scorpions are seldom content with forcing the shoe on the other foot to teach enemies how it feels. They glue the sandal on with cement. However, with the gray lizards, Pluto revenge takes the form of bitterness held inside for years, which inevitably causes deep melancholy or actual, lingering physical illness. Seething Scorpio ­resentment, turned inward and never expressed, poisons with deadly certainty. Turned outward, it can create guilt, be­cause the stinger scorpion is ashamed to harm the defense-less, when all is said and done. Therefore, it should be turned neither way-inward nor outward. It should be conquered by looking up and forgetting, like the eagle- never by looking back in anger and retaliation.