Step I - Aligning myself with the divine guidelines

The below Yamas & Niyamas will be guidelines for every thought/physical action in my life from today. Im finally aligning myself with the divine laws and i proceed with complete faith and confidence that by following the below right conducts and right behaviours, Gods grace will shine on me, will work for me and eventually whatever happens will be for my spiritual evolutionary progress. Aum Gurudevaya Namah.

The Ten Yamas, Restraints for Proper Conduct from the Vedas

Ahimsa - Non-injury : Not harming others, by thought word or deed. To give up revenge

Satya - Truthfullness : Refraining from lying and betraying promises.

Asteya - Non-stealing : Neither stealing, nor coveting, nor entering into debt.

brahmacharya - Divine conduct : Controlling lust by remaining celibate when single.

kshama - Patience : Restraining intolerance and impatience in dealing with circumstances

dhriti - Steadfastedness : Overcoming nonperseverance, Indecision, Fear and changeable ness (flickering mind)

daya - Compassion : Conquering insensitive feelings towards all beings
arjava - Honesty, Straightforward : Renouncing deception & wrong doing
mitahara - Moderate eating : Neither eating in excess, nor consuming meat/eggs
shaucha - Purity : Avoiding impurity in mind, body and speech.

The Ten Niyamas, Observances for Spiritual Life from the Vedas

hri - Remorse : Being modest and showing shame for misdeeds.
santosha - Contentment : Seeking joy and serenity in life.
dana - Giving : Sacrificing and being generous without thought of expectations
astikya - Faith : Believing firmly in God, Gods, guru and path to enlightenment.
Ishvarapujana - Worship of the Almighty : The cultivation of devotion through daily worship and meditation.

siddhanta shravana - Scriptural Listening : Studying the teachings and listening to the wise of one's lineage.
mati - Cognition : Developing a spiritual will and intellect with guru's guidance.
vrata - Sacred vows : Fulfilling religious vows, rules and observances faithfully.
japa - Recitation : Chanting mantras daily.
tapas - Austerity : Performing sadhana, penance, tapas and sacrifice.

Things working fine.

After visiting Madurai Meenakshi Temple with friends, and conversing with them, i realized what trouble my friends are going through. Compared to which my problems were nothing. There are people in this world who have suffered major heart breaks, lost loved ones. Its very very painful affair when one suffers a heart break from a loved one. Its astonishing to see how the mind due to its own novelty is the root cause of all problems, yet due to our identification with it, we suffer even though we are all perfect right now. I have come to a conclusion that desire is the root cause of misery, its the desire which is repressed in the subconscious which is more difficult to eliminate that the conscious ones. The desires in the subconscious have to be understood through meditation and eliminated through understanding. This is a seemingly easy process, but its necessary to achieve concentration and quieting the mind first in order to do it successfully.

Gods are really listening to me, my prayer to Lord Ganesh, Lord Shanmug, Lord Krishna, My Sai and Goddess Madurai Meenakshi have been answered. They have all been kind to me and have made me strong on my path to perfection. They are making me realize the importance of execution, my subconscious desires and the way to conquer them. Looks like i am all set on the path now. The most important thing that i should keep in mind is to be consciously conscious. To look at my own mind, analyse when the thoughts come spontaneously. Find out whether they came from subconscious desires, understand and resolve repressions, kill the subconscious desire through the light of understanding (problem statement, root cause analysis, end result analysis, effects). Wait till i figure out how a subconscious desire in the subconscious mind resolves itself into an emotion in the lower mind (lower chakras) .... Then bounce myself back into the higher mind, to the higher chakras which is under the control of Lord Subramanya. I guess visiting a spiritual land like Madurai and such other holy places can do miracles on an individuals spiritual progress. Thanks to all the ever-loving Gods of the 2'nd world.

Essence of all Knowledge in a Nutshell

I realized today that finally the essence of all teachings drills down to 2 things

• External worship and internal speculation are 2 faces of the same coin. Request God for help in prayer and forget the problem.
• Live in the present – that’s the essence of meditation
• While living in the present, do things that are prompted by super consciousness (intuition)

My Goals

Most important message from Sai baba – These MUST be followed even if none of the others are followed

• Pray for others, Be kind and caring for parents. Don’t be money minded
• Chant gayatri, Aditya hrudayam regularly.
• Give importance to things that matter most to you, work on those goals.
• To attain Brahman, one has to do great sacrifice, control the 5 senses, the mind and the intelligence. One who isn’t willing to donate 5 Rs to the poor, how will he ever attain control over the 5 indriyas?
• Meditate on the region in between the eyes, where you will get My vision.
• Develop divine thinking and look at the world through My eyes. See Me in everyone you interact.

* Live like on the top of a tree, when the tree leans to the front – u r thinking of future, when the tree leans to your back – u r falling to the past. Always stay balancing on the top.

* Goal is to make mind 1 pointed so that we live in present

* On an avg. we get 60,000 thoughts per day, Reduce the thoughts by setting Goals.

* While living in the present, don’t let the mind carried away by distractions, Focus on the goals instead.

* Don’t worry about future, just see the goal and execute and focus fully on the present, future will b taken care of.

* Look for the source of I and find I-I that is continuous and unbroken, with a mild light and a high pitch sound, attain and maintain this state.

Investigating the mind

Ramana Maharshi is my guru; I feel He is telling me directly when I read his sayings. This is my favorite article, which I love reading again and again. Puts me back in observation mode when I read it. I love you Ramana Maharshi.

If we unceasingly investigate the form of the mind, we find there is no such thing as the mind. This is the direct path open to all.

There is no use removing doubts. If we clear one doubt another arises and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts will cease only when the doubter and his source have been found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you find he is really nonexistent. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease. Reality being yourself, there is nothing for you to realize.  All regard the unreal as real. What is required is that you give up regarding the unreal as real. The object of all meditation (dhyana) or japa is only that, to give up all thoughts regarding the non-self, to give up many thoughts and to hold on to one thought. The object of all sadhana is to make the mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus exclude our many thoughts. If we do this, eventually even the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished in its source.

When we enquire within ‘Who am I?’ the ‘I’ investigated is the ego. It is that which makes vichara (enquiry) also. The Self has no vichara. That which makes the enquiry is the ego.  The ‘I’ about which the enquiry is made is also the ego. As the result of the enquiry the ego ceases to exist and only the Self is found to exist.

Breath control may serve as an aid but can never by itself lead to the goal. While doing it mechanically, take care to be alert in mind and to remember the ‘I- thought’ and the quest for its source. Then you will find that where the breath sinks, there the ‘I-thought’ arises. They sink and arise together. The ‘I-thought’ will also sink along with the breath. Simultaneously another luminous and infinite ‘I-I’ will emerge, and it will be continuous and unbroken. That is the goal. It goes by different names — God, Self, Kundalini, Shakti, Consciousness, etc.

Who am I?’ is not a mantra. It means that you must find out where in you the ‘I-thought’ arises, which is the source of all other thoughts. But if you find that vichara marga (path of enquiry) is too hard for you, you go on repeating ‘I-I’ and that will lead you to the same goal. There is no harm in using ‘I’ as a mantra. It is the first name of God. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything.  If one has realized, he is That which alone is, and which alone has always been. He cannot describe that state. He can only be That. Of course we loosely talk of Self-realization for want of a better term. Effortless and choice less awareness is our Real State. If we can attain It or be in It, it is all right. But one cannot reach It without effort, the effort of deliberate meditation. All the age long vasanas (latent tendencies) carry the mind outwards and turn it to external objects. All such thoughts have to be given up and the mind turned inward. For most people effort is necessary. Of course, everybody, every book says summa iru - be quiet or still). But it is not easy. That is why all this effort is necessary. Even if you find one who has effortlessly achieved the mouna (silence) or Supreme State indicated by, you may take it that the effort necessary has already been completed in a previous life. Such effortless and choice-less awareness is reached only after deliberate meditation.

People are afraid that when the ego or the mind is killed, the result may be a mere blank and not happiness. What really happens is that the thinker, the object of thought and thinking all merge into the one Source, which is Consciousness and Bliss itself, and thus that state is neither inert nor blank. I do not understand why people should be afraid of that state in which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind is killed. Every day they experience that state in sleep. There is no mind or thought in sleep. Yet when one rises from sleep one says, ‘I slept happily.’ Sleep is so dear to everyone that no one, prince or beggar, can do without it.