How do I know my prayers are reaching God?

Depends on the prayer. Foolish people in this world ask for material things. Every so often it gets granted. There you have an answer

Spiritual people don’t ask for material things. They ask for progress in meditation. They only want God. So how do you know God heard that prayer. **You know that prayer was answered when material things are taken away from you. Initially there is tremendous hardship until every fiber in your being says – no more. I will not come back every again. Nothing except God matters. Hold on to it. In time you will get an awakening. A tug of war ensues. You will get your wishes granted and you will crave the worldly desires. You fall. Once again you go through a dry spell. Until one fine day Satan or Maya cannot tempt you. Then you will progress super fast. **

Lastly there are those great individual you can no longer fall. How do they pray? They don’t. They merely have a thought. It instantly materializes. They never want anything in this world. But they may occasionally say I wonder what Krishna looked like. Krishna appears in person. Or Jesus

Isn’t that wonderful?

Greek mythology

The ancient Greeks were very advanced. Look at their architecture and prolific work of literature

But , many of them where perfected or nearly perfected souls

Vishnutirthji maharaj was there too in one of the births

Socrates taught Plato. Plato disciple was Aristotle. Alexander the Great followers Aristotle, came to India. He could not go south of the northern most part of India

The Indian Saints defied him. They would not even go to meet him. One Saint told him he will meet him again in a year. Alexander did not understand the cryptic prophecy and passed away in Egypt The Saint probably was waiting for him on the other side when he departed.

All Gurus live in two worlds simultaneously.

Many of the Greek mythology is not mythology but techniques of yoga. I have written about it in a cryptic way in my blogs

Here is another cryptic message from Plato – describing a perfect method

According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.

Of course this can’t be understood by most. And it is not my place to talk about it.

But suffice to say it is not about searching a soul mate or finding love or companionship or physical Union

That’s all what people who only know the physical realm can think or say.

Progress 

Fastest way to move forward is by the touch of a divine being

Or through his words.  Spoken or written 

Takes many lifetimes to find one

He /she never advertises and does not seek the masses. 

If they find one or two truly interested person in their lifetime they are pleased.  

A truly interested person wants to kill his own ego knowing that it is the ultimate root of evil

How does karma create a body?

Interesting question, isn’t it?

Did somehow your karma inspire your parents?
When does the soul enter the body? At birth ? At conception? Somewhere in between?
And if the body has say blindness- how did your karma influence the body to be blind?
Or is there a magistrate or / judge out there saying – your a terrible soul and now I am going to punish you with a body having problems?

See you yourself judge your self and create your own destiny And are the executioner However you have to be at a very high level to realize how you created your own problems. Once the body is created – the karma with that body has to be borne out. Yogananda could not get out of it
Ramana maharshi could not either. He suffered from severe arthritis – disabling throughout his life
Vivekananda had severe asthma
Yogananda has back problems and eventually had gait problems
Saint Francis was blind

Yet without complaining they let the karma work it out in the body. In fact physical ailment for karma is far easier than to endure emotional pain and anguish.
Just ask yourself would you rather be sick for. A few years or in jail? In both cases you are confined !

So wherever problems you have – smile. In fact if your smile is 100% genuine karma gets burnt quickly.

Yet skillfully , I have not written how karma creates the body. If only you knew , you would leave the world and wish for a quiet life in the Forrest with no one around , no one ever visiting you, including your spouse, kids or parents or friends

Are you guilty?

Thinking of money – how often do we waste our time thinking about it ? Worrying about it? Wanting it? Wanting to buy things with it? Wanting to travel using it? Wanting to enjoy Life with it?

Do you see the evil inherent in money. Invariably it corrupts the mind with desires for material things. And it brings a certain power with it

Why power? You can bribe people. The moment people know your rich they want to do favors for you. Be associated with you.

And sex. Men or women can chase you for the money. Mind you it is not for you. But fit the money

We all have wanted to endure that kind of hardship Of having a lot of money. But with it, there is fear of criminal activity against you.

But one Word.

Money.

And what did it do – immediately grab you s and pull you in to the world

Also some of the highest Yogi did not want you touch money. They wanted to live by the love of God. Let God carry the burden of sustaining you ( Gita – chapter 9 verse 22 )

In autobiography of a Yogi Yogananda demonstrated how with faith in God he traveled and had lavish meal provided for – just by total faith

Total faith. Not a single thought of doubt. Very rare to achieve

Try it.

Indifference

In Gita there is a shloka that says to an enlightened person gold and rock are the same and sees friends and foe alike

This is in chapter 14. Verse 24-25 ?

But even these enlightened people need food and need some money for daily sustenance. They live in society or interact with society.

As a result, even though all is God their behavior may seem not consistent with those words.

This is what Yogananda said

The ordinary man, watching the drama of good and bad humar beings playing on the space-screen of the world, is affected pleasurably and painfully. But the man who has perceived God looks upon all types of men as dream motion-picture images, made of the relativities of the light of Cosmic Consciousness and the shadows of delusion.

       The exalted yogi, however, does not treat gold and earth, saint and sinner, with impartial indifference! He wisely recognizes their dramatic differences on the mundane plane as perceived by other material beings. Even though all beings and objects in the cosmos are made of the divine light and the shadows of delusion, the yogi recognizes relative values. He endorses the activities of the virtuous who serve as harbingers of good to their fellowmen, and he denounces the activities of the evil who harm themselves and others. 


~ Sri Paramahansa Yogananda,
6 : 9, God talks with Arjuna

What it means is that God does not tell us to be foolish in our behavior. If all is God you still don’t sit down in a cage with a hungry tiger for mediation. You will go for meditation in a place with positive vibration.

So all of religion has to be applied practically.

This creates problems and makes it more difficult to recognize a yogi. His internal status is very different than that of ordinary people. Although actions may seem the same in some situations

If a Guru has a few disciples, it may seem he is playing favorite to a disciple. This of course is not true. He grants an equal opportunity. Yet, one disciple is more interested in building his business and the other is more interested in meditation, it may seem one disciple got more attention

What is the reason for writing all this? It is difficult to recognize a yogi. Babaji himself has no needs but the immediate disciple around him need food. How do they get their meal?

So some body related issues yogi are granted exceptions. But if someone verbally abuses them or praises them they remain indifferent. Just like krishna and sishupal

This blog was written just so you can ponder on some reality issues

Bottom line

  1. indifference is more of tamas
  2. unaffected is sign of yogi
  3. knowing a pious disciple snd helping is a yogi
    4). knowing a pious disciple but not helping is tamas. instead a fake guru helps only those with money

So even though all maybe the same , the divine light is not stupid. Or foolish. Those who do wrong are given appropriate results. One should not try to hide or think God or divine will not know or forgive. A Guru is higher than God and often forgives even when God does not forgive

Ramayana – the serial

Nowadays, there is a lock down in India. There is a replay of Ramsay on TV. The one from Ramanada Sagar.

People loved it then. And maybe love it now

However, one must have subtle discernment. Most of the dialogue in the TV serial is made up. With almost a political agenda.

Valmiki and Tulsidas did not have any of the dialogue.
Watching the serial can give you wrong impression of you have not read the original books.

1). Sita is the primary Goddess. She never cried. Or ever got upset. Or scared. She was so powerful that Ravana could not even touch her shadow.
2) There is a dialogue of Vasistha muni teaching meditation and Chakra. It is quite inaccurate

On the subject of Chakra there is no one who has the slightest experience. NO ONE. NO ONE
Let’s take Muladhar Chakra. The lowest Chakra. A person with mastery over this knows all past and future in a trice.
Manipur Chakra walk on water

When I was younger I saw some of the higher siddhi. Much higher than this from a person. So I believe them to be true.

So one should stop this Chakra nonsense. People are like infants imagining a toy plane and thinking they are pilots

What is the problem with these TV series? Right now those who have watched it if I ask them to imagine Rama. They will have the image of the actor. You will not be able to see Rama like Valmiki did

On the other hand the interpretation of Ramayana by Chinmayananda was good and a delight to watch. But exactly what a yogi sees but still impressive

So watch it. But keep mind open. Learn from a yogi !

Circumstances in life Or how to change life difficulties

**We often find that those who are pure and want to make spiritual progress face adverse circumstances repeatedly. They are very troublesome. And those who are very materially inclined have a smooth peaceful life. The conclusion we draw is life is very unfair. **
**I see this quite often. And I Agree with them whole heartedly. But what I don’t tell them is it is exactly what was needed for them to progress! That unfair circumstances is is exactly what was needed to bring out the negative qualities the person has so he or she can progress. Another beautiful thing about is if they make that self correction in the personality the adverse circumstance disappears. **
This is true whether you have a guru or not. These things show that universal mother, Shree Lalitha has taken an interest in you and is leading you to a Guru. Isn’t that wonderful? If Lalitha had not taken an interest in you, you would not be reading this blog.

This is what Aurobindo – Mother said

**Now, if it so happens that you have decided to progress and if you enter the path of yoga, then a new factor intervenes. As soon as you want to progress, you immediately meet the resistance of everything that does not want to progress both in you and around you. And this resistance naturally expresses itself in all the thoughts that correspond to it. Suppose that you want to make a progress regarding attachment to food, for example; well, almost constantly there will come to you thoughts particularly interested in food, about what should be taken, what should not be taken, how it should be taken, how it should not be taken; and these ideas will come to you, they will seem quite natural to you. And the more you say within yourself, “Oh! how I would like to be free from all that, what a hindrance to my progress are all these preoccupations”, the more will they come, quietly, until the progress is truly made within and you have risen to a level of consciousness where you can see all these things from above and put them in their place―which is not a very big place in the universe! And so on, for all things. Therefore, your occupations and affinities are going to put you almost contradictorily into contact not only with ideas having an affinity and relation with your way of being, but with the opposite. And if you don’t take care from the beginning to keep an attitude of discernment, you will be turned into a mental battlefield.**
**The Mother, Questions and Answers 1956, CWM volume 8, pages 208 - 209.**


The flawless mirror

One of Yogananda disciple called Yogananda the flawless mirror. There is a book on it by her

What did she mean by it? A Guru reflects our inner consciousness and immediately has the ability to reveal it. Things we do not understand ourselves and things we would not readily accept

If we have a tendency to anger and resentment, we may read books and pretend to be tolerant and wonderful like Buddha but the Guru sees through it and can point it out !

There are many many things about ourselves we do not know but the Guru knows That’s why Kabir said if only you look into yourself, you will find that you are the greatest sinner. You will be appalled at how terrible you are. And that is the beginning of change. Dropping our personality. And evolving to purity. Why is it called personality? Persona means mask. ( Aurobindo). What we do is put out a mask Something that is not real Think about it. When you go to work, you say yes sir when you really want to use some colorful adjective. If you are in customer service, you want to scream at the person but can’t. Your family can be irritating but you have to test situations with tender love. You are dating and put up a fake appearance of kindness trying to impress

So what are you really ? Your inner self is quite rotten. Demanding. Intolerant. Breaking down on the inside very quickly. Manipulative. Egotistic. Controlling. Fearful. Looking for gains. Seeking pleasure at all times. Upset when you don’t something nice or fun. Wanting to be adored. Not caring. Selfish

Do you see the 100 Kauravas? Yogananda has described each of them very accurately. Now you may think you are none of those , but that is not true. For someone who is truly on the path you will immediately see your flaws. And wish you change. Those who have not started will only find maybe one or two flaws.

For purity all those flaws have to be worked in. Slowly. It is a Herculean task It takes time. But like the river Ganga does , it can be swept away fairly quickly. I often use puns to give detailed spiritual guidance

So the Guru has gone through those steps and knows your flaws. You can learn a lot from him and make corrections. An impure soul cannot see God. One impure thought and you instantly fall down

But now to the real reason why I wrote this. The flawless mirror reflects exactly what you think and imagine. Let us say there is a Guru right in front of you. He looks quite ordinary. They hide their halo. So he looks very ordinary. And you think that person is ordinary. Guess what , you did not hold on to something wonderful. You lost a great opportunity. The Guru will show something about his greatness But we judge him by human standards and miss an opportunity of lifetimes

There was a wonderful saint. Who always acted like a crazy person. Sometimes laughing. Someone crying. And if you came near him he would throw stones at you. Now that person was a Guru. Tell me would you even go near that person. Why not? Because we have standards which we think are the right way of acting and not the right way. So this Guru was showing, he is beyond society values and appearances. Once in a while someone would go to him and he would throw stones. If you were wise, You would pick up the stone and no behold it was not a stone but actually Gold !

He would laugh and cry showing your inner state of mind at that time. But who would understand that? He was displaying his knowledge of all ! Do you see why we miss opportunities?

Your scale is very primitive You do not know how to appreciate a Guru. You judge him by your social and cultural standards. Many times, pearls are given.

I was once a part of a group on what’s app. My tests are subtle I gave a few pearls. And then left the group when someone told me not to speak or comment on anything he said I was not in the group to Learn something. So after they gave me permission to leave ( they told me not to speak) I left. Those who were left, had a choice, to continue to stay the group or learn elsewhere. Thankfully no one approached me.

The point is spirituality is very subtle. You have to be at a very high level to understand the actions of Saints like the person throwing stones.

They are the flawless mirror. Sometimes you have to use ammonia to Clean it! Or you Will only see the dust and miss the mirror!

I finally found and understood salvation

I studied history. And finally I got to put things together. Maybe i should guide the rest of the world and maybe even be a super Guru.

So this is what i realized. It came to be suddenly, while driving. I realized it in a second. Maybe even less time. And there was a lot of light. I had pulled my sunglasses off and took the car shade off. The sun was so hot at that time too !

Anyway joking apart, this is what I learnt. It is about Gautam Buddha. Ready? I just cant wait to share this and would love to hear your opinion

So, Buddha was born a prince. He married and had a son named Rahul. And after he saw the world ( old age, disease, death, ….) he got up in the middle of the night and left. He disappeared from home. Stayed in forrest. Thats when he achieved Nirvana. He taught this to other people. Eventually they also achieved Nirvana. His wife saw his point too and she got Nirvana too. King Ashok, took a while but finally left home and spread the word of Nirvana

The western civilization, finally understood nirvana partly, a 4000 or 5000 years later.

So do you want to know what was nirvana? Now mind you, this is just my take. Nirvana was leaving his wife !. Being alone. He finally realized peace instantly. And after having that for 10 years decided to teach others. His wife even realized that being alone was peace. King Ashok left home (hint wife) and found Nirvana too

The western civilization learnt about it too. Unfortunately, they chose to call it Divorce and Nirvana. Since they did not use the right words, they could not preach it to others and could not use the word peace!

Oh well, this is just a joke.
You cant live life being serious all the time, can you?
No, I did not have a fight with my wife.
But I was driving alone. Google maps, apple maps and waze were all off. And wife was not there either. Is that super nirvana?

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Feb 09

Yoga Basics and Shiv Swarodaya and the Science of Breathing / Breath

I will only touch the basics about Shiv Swarodaya here.  However, there are a few fundamentals about Yoga that everyone should know.

1) For all individuals, the flow of air / breathing occurs in either left or right nostril.  (Medically, this is due to changes in the sinuses).  When the flow is through the left nostril it is called chandra nadi or ida or jamuna and when the flow is through the right nostril it is called surya nadi or pingla or ganga.

2) As per Vivekananda Maharaja, flow through the left nostril is usually auspicious for most purposes

3) Flow through the right nostril is good before going to war and meditation (Gurudev)

4) The flow alternates through left and right nostrils every 1.5 hours for a person in good health.  For a yogi it changes every hour.  For an advanced yogi, the flow is through the left nostril in the day time and right nostril at night time.  This increases his longetivity

5) If you lie on your left side, the right nostril opens up and if you lie on your right side, the left nostril opens up.  It is more effective if you are able to exert pressure in the axillary area while lying on the sides

6) Generally, when either nostril is open, there is minimal flow through of air on the other nostril too.  The key word is minimal. 

7) If the airflow is only through one nostril and not even a minimal amount flows through the other nostril then it is inauspicious to do any task

8) If the airflow is through the left nostril mostly and minimal air is through the right side it is called amrit yoga.  It is very auspicious

9) If the airflow is through the right nostril mostly and minimal through the left side it is called Visha yoga and is inauspicious.

10) All the chogadias which hindus use come originally from the knowledge of the breath. 

This is the bare essentials.  There is a lot more to this which can be discussed later, including how to recognize the basic elements from breathing, how to effective in communications etc

Now, let us talk about Sushumna nadi.  This is what the Yogi aspires.  Sushumna nadi is said to be open when the air flow through both nostrils is EQUAL or if the breath changes from left to right and right to left with rapidity.  This nadi is EXTREMELY inauspicious for wordly matters.  It is an indicator of death, people disliking you for no reason, extreme difficulties etc.  However, the same nadi is EXTREMELY auspicious for a Yogi if he can reverse the air flow, take the prana inside and it can lead to Moksha, or freedom. Without the Sushumna nadi opening, one cannot have any Yogic experiences

The duration of how long Sushumna remains open predicts remaining life.  I will explain this later.  For now, suffice to know that when the airflow through the nostril changes, one has to go through Sushumna for a short time.  Now, you will understand why some days can be good, bad and ugly. Our breathing is constantly telling us and reminding us of impending success or problems

Lastly, one more thing.  When we breath out the breath goes out for a certain distance.  This distance is measured by a Yogi by the distance measured in the width of the finger.  Normally, this distance, the distance the breath travels out is 12 finger breaths.  During activities it goes up.  If a person can just decrease the distance travelled by the breath by one finger breath, he or she begins to feel warm.  If the breathing goes down to 7 finger breaths, he begins to experience Samadhi.  I will discuss this more when I translate Muktashastra.

My daughter asked me the other day, why did she feel so warm while doing mala.  The answer is, her breathing had slowed down from the normal 12 (not rate of breathing but the distance travelled outside the nose) to 11.  The more one can decrease it, the more Yogic powers appear. 

How does one decrease the distance travelled by the breath?  That is the real art of a Yogi!  Just forcefully breathing slowly DOES NOT work.

Feb 08

Sunderkand and Ramayana

prabhu bhala kinha mohi sikha dinhi, marajadi puni tumhari kinhi.

dhola, nagaar, sudra, pasu, nari, sakala tadna ke adhikari

 

 This is from Sundarkand, verse 58.  This particular paragraph caught my attention because of Arvind Pathak when he stated in his lecture that he was making a change in what Tulsidasa had to say.  He took objection to the word tadna. 

  

Ramayana is a beautiful story about Rama, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman and their life story.  Sunderkanda was written by Tulsidasji.  Tulsidasji was an enlightened being who had tremendous compassion and power.  When he wrote Sunderkanda, it is said that every other line was written by Hanumanji.  Tulsidasji suffered a lot in his lifetime.  He had an infectious power of sparking spiritual interest in many souls around him and Maya or Satan looked at him and his actions very unfavorably.  They put him through many trials.  It is said he composed many verses to help save people from suffering. All of his prayers and hymns are still very powerful and effective and help save many a soul, even to this day from pain and anguish.  These include the Sunderkanda, Hanuman chalisa, Hanuman Bahuk, Hanuman Sankatamochana etc.

  

I have more about Tulsidas and Hanuman in my other blogs.  Neem Karoli Baba was an avatar of  Hanuman.

  

Like many stories in hinduism and in the bible, the stories are based on some truth and have a very profound meaning also.  This verse 58 is a statement made by Ocean who is asking Rama forgiveness.  Rama wanted to cross the ocean to reach Lanka and the ocean had to be crossed.  However, the ocean would not let him pass.  So, Ram takes his arrows out and wants to destroy the ocean and the ocean stated the verse 58 asking his forgiveness.

  

The translation of these 2 lines is as follows.

  

God has graced me by giving me a lesson and has made me a “marjadi” or told me my limitations (once again).

The following things should be beaten – drum, country bumpkin, low caste, animals (cattles) and women.

 

This, like many things in religion, on surface value seems senseless. 

Just remember any scripture written by great souls like Tulsidas is NEVER meaningless.  There always is a deeper meaning to it.  If you read the interpretation of the Rubiyaat by Paramhansa Yogananda, we realize how incredible and spiritually profound the verses by Omar Khayaam are.  On surface it seems like verses written by an alcoholic and womanizer but the truth is far deeper.

Let us take the word marjadi.  Generally, especially the vaishnava take this literally as following some injunctions and follow many social restrictions.  The real meaning of marjadi is – mar means to die and jadi is a misnomer of jaye meaning to be born again.  Thus marjadi means to die and be born again.   This is in all essence another word for Samadhi.  It is very similar to what St. Paul said – “I die daily“.  He of course meant that he goes into Samadhi daily.

Like most westerners and eventhose from India, everyone uses the word Samadhi very lightly.  The truth is, it is rare and it is the crown jewel of Yoga.  It is true and a rare soul can go into the highest Samadhi where the heart stops and breathing stops and the person seems dead.  You need a living Guru to reach that stage for he alone knows the technique to bring you back to life.  Hence the word Marjadi – meaning to die and be born again!

Back to the verse, first line – now the true and most beautiful meaning is uncovered!  I am greatful to God because he graced me with Samadhi!

Line 2.  The following things should be beaten – drum, country bumpkin, low caste, animals (cattles) and women.

This line gives us the  method to reach Samadhi!  Patanjali Bhagwan gave us Yoga Darshan, the primary treatise on Yoga. All other books on Yoga are subequent to it and have merely expounded on what Patanjali Bhagwan had to say.

In his book, he talks about the 5 obstacles to Samadhi and these obstacles have to be driven out (beaten out) before Samadhi can be reached.  The 5 obstacles are Avidya (ignorance), Ego, Raga (attachment) Dvesha (hatred) and Abhivinesha (attachment to the body). 

Line 2 thus talks about driving out the 5 obstacles in order to reach Samadhi.

1) Gavaar or country bumpkin – This obviously refers to Ignorance

2) Drum refers to Ego.  Just like a drum is hollow and has no substance, makes a lot of noise, a soul driven by Ego has no substance and makes a lot of unnecessary statements

3) Naari or Women – Refers to attachment

4) Animal – Dvesha a purely animalistic tendency to abhor

5) Shudra – Refers to Abhinivesha or attachment to the body.  The body is of low caste compared to the spiritual splendor of the soul!

The corresponding reference in Mahabharata and God talks with Arjuna by Yogananda are – Ego is Bhisma, ignorance is Kripacharya, Karna is attachment, Vikarna is Dvesha and Jaydratha is Abhinivesha.

 

 

 

Feb 07

Mantra, The Word, Aum

I am glad my daughter is taking immense interest in spirituality.  This beautiful and royal road to God has become complicated by everyone claiming to know the way, giving their own versions of concocted ideas and floating in the world of thoughts and ideas but not walking the royal road to God.  This blog will clarify all ideas and opinions about the word, aum and Mantras.

First of all, let us be very clear about Raj Yoga or the royal road to God.  It is when ones prana goes inside the brahma nadi and it takes our prana thus our consciousness straight to God.  There is NO other royal road. 

One has to know a little bit about how the universe and when I say universe, I refer to all 3 universes, the gross physical, subtle and causal worlds was created.  God exists in the primary undifferentiated form.  This is God or Parmatma or Sacchidananda.  After this, the first part of creation was the Son of God.  This son of God goes by a few names, Christ, or Christ Consciousness or Krishna Consciousness or Kutasta Chaitanya or Narayana.  Just remember Jesus was an avatari person, Christ is a state of spirituality.  This aspect, the son of God is the consciousness present everywhere.  One day, Gurudev explained this to me.  He had a short bout of pharyngitis.  He was in his chowki upstairs in his room and I was there.  He coughed up a little phlegm and the phlegm was floating in the water.  He pointed it to me and said, this is the primary creation called as narayana.  Naar meaning water and ayana meaning ball.  Both phlegm is mostly water but yet it differentiated itself from water and formed a “ball” floating in the water, thus the meaning Narayana. Thus Narayana is synonymous with son of God or Kutastha Chaitanya.  I hope the reader can see how great men live!  EVERYTHING reminds them of God.

The next step of creation was aum or as known in the Bible as the word or the holy Ghost.  Remember, so far nothing has been created.  A primary sound, called Aum or the word came about.  Subsequently from this primary sound or the first word, Bija Mantras came about.  They are for example Hrim, Klim, Gam, etc.  From these Bija mantras the causal universe and the subtle universe came into existence.  Thus two shaktis appeared from the holy ghost or Aum.  One is Aditi or Para shakti who created the causal and subtle universe and the other was her “sister” Diti or Apara shakti from whom the gross physical world appeared.  In the vedas, it is said that the soul has 2 mothers, diti and aditi.  This of course refers to the soul hiding behind the causal, subtle and gross body.

I hope the reader can understand why it is said in the bible in John, first there was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. 

In order to reach God, one has to travel back in the reverse direction.  So the task of a Guru is awaken the Word in the disciple.  This word or Aum is to be heard not recited.  One can be saved from eons of labor by having a Guru who awakens this sound and one has reached the level of the Holy Ghost and the disciple tries to remain immersed in this holy word or Aum. This is the true Brahmacharya or celibacy and this is the true Mantra.

Thus, we now come to Mantra and Mantras.  The true Mantra is Aum.  The true Mantra diksha is when one sits in meditation and just listens to it and becomes immersed in it. This is the true baptism, true awakening of the shakti.

So what do we do if we our Aum is not awakened and we do not hear this sound?  This royal awakening is NOT for everyone.  Very few souls can endure this kind of awakening.

The next step is, the Guru or teacher gives a different Mantra.  Like we talked about previously, from the primary Aum, the bija mantras came into existence.  From the bija mantra different Gods and Goddesses appeared.  Anyone who has  heard the Bija Mantra or Aum can say that the Mantra is “awake” or “Jagrat”.  This means, it is not just a word but it has power in it.  If God permits it, the Guru gives this Mantra or Bija Mantra to the disciple and the disciple has received a Mantra which is not just words but is shakti or a live spiritual power.  The disciple, in time by using the mantra is able to go to Aum and reach the ultimate.

So, how does one recite the mantra?

1)

Best is if the disciple can sit in meditation and just listen to it. 

2) Since this cannot be done at all times, the next step is to recite it.  The best way is to recite it with ones mind without using our lips, tongue and done in total silence.  Moreover, since Aum or the holy ghost is at the Agna chakra, the area between the eye brows, one should have his or gaze “fixed” at that area.  This seems simple enough but it is quite difficult to perform.  Not only should one have the gaze fixed but also feel the presence of the deity or ones Guru or the divinity to whom this Mantra is addressed to, at the Agna chakra.  It is ok to use a Rosary with this method.

3) Since this method is not easy and not everyone can do it, the next best technique is to use the rosary, not use our lips or tongue, recite the mantra in our mind but imagine being at a divine place or Siddha Pitha.  There are some areas in India, where God appeared and has left his or her divine vibrations there.  For eg.  the Jyotirlinga.  Or one can use the place of Samadhi of an enlightened person and use the mantra directed to the enlightened person.  The disciple should imagine being there, recite the mantra and with every mantra recited, at the end of it, offer the mantra to the divinity in the form of a lotus with a strong will of reaching God or offering the divinity our faults, all our karmas etc. This should be done without fear.  Without having a single thought of doubt in the mind and with love.

4) If you cant do the mantra in this fashion, the next best way is to recite the mantra with slight motion of the lips and tongue and keeping eyes closed, try to imagine as best as possible the above scene and repeatedly try to do the above step 3

5) If you cannot focus enough next step is to repeatedly recite the mantra mechanically, letting the mind wander, every so often reminding the mind of its task, but try to keep eyes closed and use the rosary

6) Even if that fails, recite the mantra loudly provided NO ONE else can hear it.   It is very important that if the disciple has been given a jagrat or live mantra, that he or she does not recite it loudly in the presence of others.

These steps have been alluded to in the SRF lessons and Yogananda’s explanation of the Gita, God talks with Arjuna.

In time, by following the above steps, the disciple can reach a state where the Mantra is heard.  Usually when one reached this stage, the body starts to become numb and the prana enters the brahmanadi.   The mantra takes over, a deeper part of the mind, not the mind that is active with the gross body but something much deeper, the thought or mind of the causal body begins to take over. 

There are a few other injunctions to be followed but that will have to wait for some other time.

Feb 06

Worry

Before I touch on Nectar, one of the problems in spiritual progress is that when in difficulty or adverse conditions we resort to our “natural” state of dealing with it.  It could be depression, aggressiveness, anger or fear or cowardice.   With time, we tend to “forget” the pain and ignorantly we say time heals.  However, the seeds, the basic way we react has not been eradicated.  Next time, in this life or the next life we will have to deal with it again. 

When time heals, we are merely covering our eyes or putting blindfolds on our personality.  A  yogi, acknowledged and realizes he has a problem.  The problem is not the situation but the problem is his inferior way of dealing with it (anger, fear etc).  So he constantly endeavors to not fall back to the “human” way to deal with it but tries to remain established in his higher self – the pure consciousness.   This is NOT easy.  This is why Yogananda said it is easy to go to Savikalpa Samadhi.  But to go to Nirvikalpa Samadhi is extremely difficult.  (His definition of Nirvikala samadhi is to remain in samadhi or in the consciousness of the self or having some prana inside the brahmanadi at all times).  I am facing this problem.   During meditation, it is easy.  But after meditation, during activities, it is very difficult to rid the consciousness of worry and fear. 

There are a few things that can help.  I will give them in descending order of most effectiveness.  Having said that, the best method is always the most difficult also.

1)  Using will or your Sankalpa shakti, which in turn decreases the distance the breath travels outside the nostrils (I will discuss this in great detail in my future blogs under Shiv Swarodaya) and this in turn leads us to automatically going to the higher self

2) Using Mantra while our eyes are gazing upwards and inwards

3) Using mantra with some imagination of the diety or Paramhansa we are trying to focus on

4) Using mantra in anyway.

In all methods though, one has to have a specific and clear goal that is pure.  When I say pure, the only goals that are acceptable are – either to rid the consciousness of worry or to be established in the higher self.  No discussion or justification or vengenance is accepted or permissible.

Feb 05

Polarity of Chakras

I have alluded this to a few times in my past blogs.  Every chakra except Sahastrar has a negative downward pole, a consciousness that is directed towards the world.  This is referred to in the Bhagvad Gita as the “Dakshinayana” or lower six months of the calendar.  If a person leaves the body while the chakras are pointing downwards, it is said he had “adhogati”  Meaning adho meaning downward and gati meaning movement. 

When the chakras are turned upward, the consciousness faces God.  One begins to realize oneself, successively in every chakra as pure consciousness.  This is the brighter half of the lunar cycle or Uttarayana or the upper six months of the calendar. It is also the fire or daylight as described in Gita. If a person leaves his body in this situation, he is said to have Urdhvagati or meaning upper movement

Remember, this is still not liberating.  Also remember the chakras are in the brahmanadi.  Please see my description about it.  These events occur slowly.  However, any effort is supremely helpful as Babaji and Lahiri Mahashay said.  “Banat Banat Banjaye”

In todays meditation, my pager went off – it was lying right next to me but I did not hear it.  Did not realize it till I got up from meditation.  The meditation was still a struggle.  The lower half of Manipur, the site of chitta, the place for worries, stress and anxiety has been supremely strong for the last month.  I can occasionally pass it but it does not remain turned upwards at all times.  In order to overcome this with pemanence, requires finding and clinging to God completely, selflessly and without worry or anxiety.  I do not and have not figured out the exact opposite to this shadow.

Having said that, I am increasingly aware of the primary will of God.  It is a vibration above the Agna chakra.  God wills and it happens in this earth.  There is no question of probability or whether it will happen or not.  It just happens.  Moreover, I heard the sound of Hum, Hum, the sound that comes from God, which repeatedly tells the soul, that I am.

It is important to remember that to surrender to the will of God, one has to be fearless, anxiety free, worry free, without anger, hatred or jealousy or vengenance. Just purity.  I was able to do this with some degree of success.  It reminds me of the incident when Ramkrishna asked Vivekananda, if there is an ocean of nectar, where would you start swimming in it?  Vivekananda said, at the edge so that way he would not drown. Ramkrishna laughed and said, Child, this is the ocean of immortality you can jump in anywhere anytime.  Do not be afraid!

Feb 03

Self Realization Fellowship (SRF) energizing exercises (contd)

I would like to continue on expounding on SRF exercises.  I wrote about it briefly in the past.  However, to understand it fully, one has to have a clear understanding on prana. Yesterdays blog and elsewhere in my blogs there is a more precise explanation of the prana.

As we talked about, the only way to go into Samadhi, is by reversing the flow of prana from the body and have it ascend via the Brahmanadi into Agna chakra or higher.  This reversal of flow has to occur from the gross physical body.  When one performs the energizing exercises, it is in essence training the body to contract and relax at will.  The contraction and the relaxation of the body, whether we realiz it or not, occurs through the will of the person which then acts through the prana. 

Like we talked about yesterday, the breathing exercises are very crucial.  So, it helps a lot to do the breathing exercises in synchrony with the energizing exercises.  This way, there are two things helping to reverse the flow.  The exercise and the breath process. 

Having said that, still most people are not able to reverse the flow because

1) The mind wanders in the body and elsewhere in a world of imagination

2) They have not had the blessings of a living guru who has opened the mouth of chitra and vajra and the brahmanadi.

3) They have not practiced the breathing exercise with the energizing exercise with patience, faith and it has to be practiced for years to make the ascent.

Initially, with the reversal of the flow of prana, it tends to go up through the chitra and vajra.  That is because we remain very intellectual and emotional.  Once, the intellectuality and emotionalism is overcome, then it an ascend in the brahmanadi. 

All of the wonderful scriptures of Yoga, call the true beginning of Yoga when prana goes through Brahmanadi.  This is where the lotuses lie.  A living Guru is a must for this.

Like Aurobindo described and based on my experience. the ascent occurs in three passes.  The first pass is through sushumna.  This was bypassed for all of Gurudevs disciple.  The second ascent is through chitra and vajra.  Most of Gurudev’s disciples experience this.

The third and final ascent is through the causal body or brahmanadi.  From the current living disciples of Gurudev, I believe there are only 3 disciples who have can do this.  One of them is Dineshbhai Bhatt.

Last night, I had the fortune of seeing Gurudev again.  He blessed me for an extended time, placing his hand on my head. He asked me what I wanted.  All I asked was when it is time for me to leave the body, to merge my consciousness into his.  I did not ask for siddhis or any wordly happiness.  He was very pleased with this answer.

Feb 02

Pranayama – Breathing Exercises, SRF, Kriya Yoga

Pranayama – prana is the vital force, the force or energy used by Om or the Holy Ghost to run all 3 universes – the gross, subtle and causal.  The word ayama means control.

The most gross manifestations of the working of prana is breathing.  It also includes all other bodily functions.  Similarly it has other functions in the causal and subtle body.

Most people cannot reach the higher functions of the subtle and causal, so we start off with the prana in the gross body and work our ways inwards and higher.

I have repeatedly talked about the causal body, brahmanadi and that one has to be able to withdraw the prana from the limbs and body (making the body numb.  The best example of this was Paramhanasa Yogananda. When he was in Bombay in the 1930’s, he showed how he could die.  There were other physicians there and he had stopped his heard and breathing and was pronounced dead.  When he recovered at will, he was not able to walk or move without assistance. This is because the prana took a long time to descend back into the body.  This is similar to my experience I related about 2 years ago in the blog with Bade guruji, or Vishnutirthji Maharaj).

So,  how does one make the ascent back?  For this we must have a little better understanding of the prana.  The prana is generally impure. What do I mean by impure?  It means that it is all mixed up, intermingled with the workings of the chitta (emotions), intellect and the mind (organ or perception).  The prana is responsible for all of their functions – chitta, intellect and the mind. However, we are not aware of it.  Just like we are not aware of the spark of life that is present in every cell of the body. Or we are not aware of the gas running the car, even though,  we know the car functions.

The great saints of India and Patanjali Bhagwan gave us the easy way.  He saw that it is crucial to have the prana working independently of the chitta, intellect or mind.  Without that independent working, we will not be able to reach the causal body or ascend through the brahmanadi (the staircase to God).  So, he gave us the trick of Pranayama or breathing exercise. 

There are 9 pranayamas.  They can be found in any yoga treatise. It should be learnt and only practiced under the guidance of a Guru. The books describe 8.  The ninth pranayama is kevali or Kriya Yoga. This occurs when the prana is pure and ascends through Brahmanadi.  (see my detailed descrptions elsewhere about Brahmanadi).  So, by practicing pranayama, we are able to slowly achieve pure prana, the activity of prana without the intervention of chitta, intellect or the mind.  These three correspond to manipur, swadhisthana and muladhar chakras.  Once this is achieved, then it is easy for the prana to go in the Brahmanadi and the pranayama becomes Kevali or Kriya Yoga.  This begins to occur around the manipur.

Along with pranayama a few other things are needed to achieve this.

1) Purity of the heart

2) Sincerity to the cause of spiritual progress alone

3) A devoted heart to God and God alone

4) Surrender to God which should be complete.  Not a single thought or emotion that questions

5) Faith (see my blog on Faith to explain what it is).

Thus every part of the 8 divisions or anga of Yoga are crucial to go higher.  Todays experience was a clear experience describing these steps.

I forgot to mention a miracle that happened a few days ago.  I was walking in Royal Farms, in a rush to go to the bathroom. The floors were wet and there were no signs.   I slipped and fell down on my left side.  The miracle was although I fell, it felt like I fell on a tremendous cushion and actually enjoyed falling!  Needless to say there was no injury.  There is a saying in Gujarati, (Rama rakhe tene kaun chakhe?) meaning he who is protected by God, what does he have to worry about?  Maybe this falling was not really a miracle but it is better to believe it is a miracle and make the faith stronger!

Feb 01

Meditation on Chakras

I did not get a chance to write yesterdays blogs.  I was orginally planning to write about sex, meditation and yoga.  Is it wrong? Is it right? Is it a hindrance? Is it somewhere in between? There are some unwritten secrets about shakti and sex which Gurudev talked about and was also written by Shankaracharya (one of the other disciples of Babaji?) 1000 years ago.  I may write a little about it later on.

Yesterdays meditation was not as deep.  But it was invaluable.  I finally learnt the technique of how to keep ones vision focused on the agna chakra and yet meditate on the lower chakras.  The utility of this is in acquiring siddhis.  I have no need for it but yet it is something that one has to master.

What I learnt is my swadhisthana chakra remains upturned and Manipur chakra can be opened with minimal difficulty.  Today, during meditation,  I developed more mastery over manipur chakra.  The petals in the front, when I turn them upside, it draws the prana or circulation from the right leg. The left petals correspond with the prana in the left upper extremity and right petals correspond with the right upper extremity.

However, interestingly, for the first time, I was able to withdraw prana or the life energy at will.  Such control is a must for a true Yogi.  Yogananda had total control over it and was able to stop breathing and his heart beating at will.

Unless one has true control over the prana, spiritual healing or the ability to awaken the shakti of another disciple is non existent.

There are 3 things needed to control where you want your prana to ascend to (that is which chakra)

1) Perfection of the Jyoti mudra

2) Your will

3) Depending on how far upwards your gaze goes, determins what chakra your prana will ascend to

It takes about 6 months of meditation on each chakra to get the siddhis of the chakras.  Do not attempt to go for siddhis.  It is very tightly regulated and siddhis are not permitted without the grace of higher beings.

Vivekananda Maharaj said, if you want to know the construction or all the nadis of the body, meditate on mainpur chakra.  Todays meditation was a revealation that yes, that is true. 

Gurudev has a very detailed description of meditation in Muktashastra.  It about 30 pages long.  He describes how the shakti flips over at the manipur chakra and it only after the shakti flips over a the manipur chakra that Sayama as described by Patanjali develops. One has, at that time, increasing control over not only the mind and intellect but also over the chitta (the store house of emotions and past births).   It gave me great pleasure in knowing that my experience matches what Gurudev described to the T.

The more I become adept in meditation, I am beginning to realize what a fantastic book Muktashastra is.  It has a lot of secrets never written before.  Secrets about Krishna, meditation, stories about Rama, etc which are only known to a Yogi who saw their lives in meditation.  At some point, I will begin to translate it, if  I can get the book and the blessings for the great beings.  Such a book is invaluable.

Jan 30

Joy!

Last night, I was at the movies.  I was curious if I could go into meditation without pranayama.  I would close my eyes, do the Jyoti mudra (without using my hands) and immediately the prana would flow back from my hands and start moving within to the Brahmanadi.  My hanands and feet would become numb.  I would no longer hear the movie and even though the part of the movie was interesting, at will I was able to terminate my attachment or thoughts to it.  This is the example Yogananda gave in his books for eg. Science of Religion – Just shut off the supply to the  limbs.

In the bible, the same thing has been described as “If thy hinds and feet offend thee, cut them off”  This is part of both Mark and Mathew.  Here, in effect, you are cutting it off meaning cutting off the life or sensation to the limbs and entering eternal life – which is the consciousness present in the Brahmanadi.   

There is no delay in knowledge or joy when the prana enters Brahmanadi.  It is instant.  The joy lasts for hours even by a second of contact in the Brahmanadi.  In fact, the joy can be so overwhelming that one can go quite “insane” wanting to stay there.  Those who remain immersed in it, become incapable of performing worldly duties.  Thus the story of Mirabai and Narsinh Mehta.

Another thing, when the Brahmanadi open, and it opens while your eyes remain open, your eyes will not shut, it will remain open and not blink.   This is why in the SRF lessions, by Yogananda, he gives the following signs of a guru – purity, eyes that remain unblinking etc.  There is one more secret to the unblinking eye. This is a secret only known to Yogis  Gurudev shared it with me.  Everytime someone blinks they are forming a desire or sankalpa.  When in the brahmanadi, there is no possibility of sankalpa or desire.  Just pure devine existence full of joy, just pure consciousness which exists for ever.  This is the beginning of Sacchidananda – the true state of God – existence forever and joy.

There are no words to describe it.  Just the happiness of existence.  I wish I could stay there forever, but till the Karmas and desires are finished, no one can stay there.

A few more words on Brahmanadi

1) Instant joy

2) The eyes never blink

3) It is pure existence

4) Knowledge is instant when prana reverses its course and goes in Brahmanadi

5) Prana entering the Brahmanadi is called Vedha Diksha.  The books on Yoga consider awakening of the Shakti only when this happens.   Awakening of the shakti can be in the gross body, subtle body or causal body.  Or in other words in the shushumna, chitra and vajra  or Brahmanadi.  The highest awakening is when it occurs in the causal or Brahmanadi.  Gurudev Sombargiriji awakened most of his disciples in sukshma or subtle body or in the chitra and vajra.  Shivohum tirthji Maharaja in the Sushumna.  There were a few exceptions in which Gurudev and Vishnutirthji Maharaja awakened some disciples in Brahmanadi, but this is extremely rare.

6) Maya or illusion deludes everyone to the last step.  Even and perhaps especially in meditation.   Just before the Brahmanadi opens fully (partial openings occur for a long time before the full opening), there is a sudden pulse or activity of the prana in the lower chakras and then there is a sort of pop or physical sensation of everything flipping over and it is done.  You are within, you are outside, you are everywhere, there is joy, there is understanding.  This is the beginning.  The illusion of Maya is that a feeling of pulse or a strong heartbeat occurs with activity of the heart also.  This is at a gross level.  The thing that occurs at the Brahmanadi is not a pulse of the heart.  It is something different.  You can only understant it when you experience it.  If you feel the heart beat but it does not give you the above feelings of joy, being everywhere etc immediately, then it is not the “prana” activity of the pop of the brahmanadi opening.

7) There are a lot of Bhajans which describe this and the word used is “Ulti re nadi, niranjan nirkhya” meaning when the nadi or consciousness flips over then you see the divine

8) Gurudev said in his Bhajan Yogamruta, Nabhi thi upde ohumkara, meaning from the manipur or Umbilical area, the om begins.  This is a reference to the “pop” or “pulse” felt once and very strongly before the prana enters the brahmanadi.

9) The joy of existence is here!  That is why in the Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “therefore, I am tell you to be a Yogi”  I just wish I could stay there for ever!

Jan 28

Third Eye, Ritambara Pragna

Todays meditation was more at the Manipura chakra.  It was more clear.  Last year, I had written about the experience of being one with the light.  This experience, the portal to enter the Brahmanadi, starts near the Manipur chakra.

When I entered there, I had the similar experience as I had being in the tunnel.  The body tries to bring one down by a pulse but one has to persist.  At this place, I realized this is the entry where a Yogi can say,  Omkaram Bindu sanyuktam nityam dhayanti Yogina.  Kamadam mokshadam chaiv, omkaray namonama.  (Meaning A yogi always meditated on Aum with the bindu.  The end result is he achieves liberation and all his desires are fulfilled).  This experience is more of the Brahmarandhra, the nadi within the chitra and vajra which is within the sushumna.

When within, one feels liberated, no longer confined to the body.  This is why Yogananda described in God talks with Arjuna, that the brahmanadi is within and without the body. It is a misnomer to say it is within the body.

Some people have used the word third eye, for some gifted individuals who have the ability to see the auras of different individual.  Edgar Casey Sr. from the 1930’s was one such person.  There have been others like that also.  This is a gift, develops spontaneously. 

However, the word third eye, in the sense I use it and that which is described in Mahayoga Vigyana and the sense in which it is used in the bible (when thine eye is one) and in the sense used by Yogananda Maharaja is a the eye with 3 colors.  Outer golden yellow, inner blue and innermost bright white shining star.  I have had occasional glimpses of this but never sustained nor at will in seconds.

I reconfirmed my experience of the Manipur chakra by reading about it in Mahayoga Vigyana. 

A few more points

1) Brahmanadi is where the causal body or Karana deha resides.

2) When in there, meaning when the prana is there – unexplained joy is the rule.  It lasts all day.

3) How does one know that his prana has reached to the innermost or deepest layer – the brahmanadi?  There is intense joy, the sense of being without body, all the prana from the body starts rolling back and goes within and the body becomes and feels numb, there is no longer the downward pull of the subtle body (which can be in form of emotions, thoughts etc) and intuition becomes very rapidly clear.  This is why Gurudev, Yogananda and others emphasized on the power of intuition.  This intuition power is a direct result or even synonymous of being in brahmanadi and also of being in the true consciousness which resides here.

4) It is called brahmanadi because it is the road that leads us to Brahma or God

5) The 7 chakras are here.  This is where one finally begins to have a perception of the chakras.  The nadas become clear, we are able to locate the nadas and then the different lotus

6) It is the seat of consciousness.  Rest of the consciousness is just a projection coming from here.

Jan 27

General thoughts

Spiritual Books can be writte in 4 ways

1) Pure fantasy or fiction

2) Books which are a compilation of information (I hate to use the word knowledge because true knowledge of God is only when one has experiened him) from a variety of books.  Often times authors dont give credit to their source except for the purpose of reaffirming their dogma

3) Books written from spiritual experiences.  If the person is pure, the book written can be profound and not misleading.   If there is any impurity, then the book can misguide. 

4) Books written by people in deep meditation.  They see a divine statement or hear something divine.  Write it down and immediately go back to that level. The vedas, upanishads, Muktashastra, Yogamruta, Many Bhajans were written this way.

The people in category 3 and 4 are the higher ones.  They can guide and lead.  These people are the ones Gautama Buddha referred to.  Swami Vivekananada said that per Buddha, ” Throw away all your books.  You are the greatest book that ever existed”

So how do we know if someone is at that stage?

1) Purity is necessary

2) Things they write are original.  You will find sentences and analogies never found anywhere.

3) They may come out with unheard of mantras

Truth nothing new can ever be written.  Just a new aspect, a new way of presentation.

Sahaja Samadhi :  When all chakras remain turned upwards spontaneously, one can be said in Sahaja Samadhi.  When I use the word chakra turned upwards, I mean no longer is there the downward pull of desires, the mind, intellect, chitta or ego.  In order words, agnan or ignorance or maya no longer covers the blazing light of the self. 

It is impossible for anyone to remain totally immersed in the higher self.  Daily and hourly variations are normal.  DO not get dismayed. 

Once again, I have been able to stay deep in meditation. In fact, nowadays, staying in meditation, is a preference.  I look forward to it, look forward to a new experience, new understanding every time I sit down.  For me the first manifestation has been knowledge.  For others it is peace or joy.  I would have preferred peace, but Shakti, mother, Ma, knows what is best for me.  I gladly accept whatever she gives.

During sleep, I am usually in the overmind state described by Sri Aurobindo and in waking stage, illumined to intuitive stage.   Intuition is becoming more refined.

All these stages are slow but at lightening speed compared to the rest of the world.

Jan 26

Meditation – some more pearls

Todays meditation was not as deep as yesterday.  However, it was more satisfying.  This may come as a surprise but allow me to explain

Say you are climbing a 100 steps.  If you climb all the way to the top stay there for a few second and come right back versus you climb 85 steps and stay there for a long time enjoying the beauty which is more satisfying?  They both have their role and importance. 
Whatever comes your way in meditation has to be accepted with pleasure and joy.

In todays  meditation, I was able to stay at a higher level uninterrupted for a long time.  You can only stay there for longer durations if the negative pull of the wordly desires, sanskaras have been vanquished to a fuller degree.  The importance of going to a highest level is it gives a certain wisdom and knowledge.

The truth is, the Atma is not to be reached, everyone has already reached it.  The coverings of maya or ignorance or avidya is what masks it.  All one has to do is slowly peel off the layers of maya.  Like swami vivkenanda said, peel off layer after layer after layer of Maya or the mind.

I was watching the Golden globe awards last Sunday.  As they were announcing the names of the nominees, I could see on their body the activity of their prana.  And looking at the activity of the prana, I could tell with a 100% certainty that this person is the winner. 

This science is very deep and mere reading takes you no where.  One has to learn these things from a living Guru, get spiritually awakened and surrender to the Shakti and Guru.  Constant and repeated interaction with an enlightened person is a must.   Forgo your ignorance, stay in the company of someone enlightened and aspire for God.  You will make progress at tremendous speed.

Jan 25

Atma or Christ Consciousness

Yesterdays, blog had my experience of the consciousness.  Tonight, I had the same experience but a little deeper

Although, the bodily consciousness was not there, at times there was the consciousness of the samadhi, but behind it all, like a silent witness, there was the consciousness of the self. A silent witness, without any reaction!  Just a silent spectator.  There is no mind or brain to justify or to have emotions.  It is there and has always been there.

According to Sri Aurobindo, this is the static aspect of cosmic consciousness.  The dynamic aspect of cosmic consciousness, it the creaton.

My experience was a little different since the static was aware of both subtle and gross physical world.

A few days ago I mentioned about a strong beat occuring in the body that was trying to break this consciousness.  Now, I have gone beyond that state.  The next step that pulls the consciousness down is a diffuse tremble (not physical but of the cells or like Arjuna said Sidanti Maam Gotrani, (meaning my inner body trembles). If one is able to keep ones Mudra focused above, this passes quickly.  The bodily consciousness is afraid of letting go completely.  This is the fifth Klesha as described by Patanjali and described by Yogananda Maharaj in God talks with Arjuna.  Yukteshwar Maharaj gave the analogy of a bird suddenly freed from a cage, but since it likes the cage so much, it goes back.

These are all experiences of breaking beyond the Vishudha chakra.  One of the siddhis of Vishudha chakra is loss of perception of time.   The other is, if one can go beyond it, then the body can be cast out or the gross and subtle body can be seperated out.

A few more things about Vishudha chakra

1) The soul is at this chakra.  Gurudev told me that many years ago and I was reluctant to accept it.  I can now confirm this

2) Vivekananda was permitted to go beyond this chakra only once in his life time.  Ramkrishna said, if I let you go there repeatedly, you will not finish the work I need to get done

3) Gurudev has put a lock on me too.  This is the extent I will make progress in this life.

4) This is the chakra, if perfected one can live for centuries. For eg, Changdev (from Gyaneshwhar Maharaj) had made progress to this chakra and lived for several hundred years

5) The great saints described in Yoga vasishtha where they lived for thousands of years were at this stage.

6) Gurudev has a detailed description of this chakra in Muktashastra – Samadhi

7) Man was made in the image of God.  (A quote in the bible).  What this refers to is just like there is the soul consciousness, there is also a universal consciousness.  My experience was mostly of the soul consciousness, but slowly expanding or merging into the universal consciousness.  

8) If one can learn to get information and make decisions by contacting this consciousness rather than using ones brain or emotions, intuition slowly gets refined and more precise.

9)  This is the true meaning of self realization.  Repeated realizations of the self is needed before one becomes fully integrated.  This is what Shankaracharya meant, “Kohum, Kustvam, Kutaha Ayata, Ko te janni, ko te taat” Meaning who are you, where did you come from, who is your mother and father!

10) Not everyone with this self realization has siddhis.  This is the fourth stage of Gyana as per Ramana Maharshi.  The fifth, sixth and sevent are stages where more Siddhis appear but the knowledge of the self is the same for those in the 4th to 7th stage.  The person who has this is a Jeevan mukta, living just to exhaust his unfinished desires and karmas.

Jan 24

Guru Mandali

Last night, as I “slept” my true consciousness was with Kashinath Dada and a group of divine souls.  I dont have a name so for the time being I will call it the Guru Mandali.   They are constantly helping, guiding and creating spiritual aspirations in all those who have surrendered to the divine path and especially so for those fortunate souls who have surrendered to Dada.  I realized many things from this experience

1)  This true consciousness which was with all the great saints, simultaneously permeates the Sthula, Sukshma and causal and is aware of all three at the same time

2) It is felt like it is without support.  In hindu scriptures they used the word “Niradhar”

3)  This is why in the bible, Jesus said, For the birds have nest and the fox has a hole but the son of god does not have a place to rest his head.  Yogananda Maharaj said it refers to the wide or universal consciousness.  I may add that it also means it is Niradhar, because it does not have anyone elses suport

4) It is limitless

5) All siddhis are a gift from these higher beings

6) As much as we try to make spiritual progress, these great souls are trying harder to get us to their level

7) Absolute purity is a must

8) In order to go to this level, Anahata chakra has to be fully opened and stay open.  Meaning one has to have a constant and habitual stage of surrender to the Divine and the great saints

9) My experience was more of the experience of pure soul.  This is at the Vishudha chakra.

Jan 21

Miscellaneous thoughts

In order to stay in meditation for longer durations, one has to learn the technique of turning the heart off.  Somewhere, I have described this technique in previous blogs as Yogananda Maharaja explained it to me about 4 years ago. 

It takes a long time to reach that stage.  However, right before this stage is reached this is what happens.  We get absorbed in deep meditation at the Agna Chakra.  The sound that is mostly heard is that like a long drawn out drum or like a roaring sound.  Then, for whatever reason, there is a sudden jolt or a very strong pulsation or heart beat felt.  It is just felt once. But it is so strong, it immediately breaks our meditation.  This strong beat is not the constant rapid pulsation felt in early stages of meditation.  This is different.  Slowly, one begins to learn not to get distracted by this throb and remain established.  It takes time. 

I would like to relate a story of my Gurudev at this point.  I heard this from Gurudev but I am sure there are some subtle variations which others have heard.

Gurudev had complete awakening of his shakti in 3 months.  He was meditating at the Shiv temple right outside his Matha. The temple has a low lying ceiling. At the end of  3 months, Gurudev’s shakti fully awakened and his body immediately went up in the air with tremendous force.  Although Gurudev was not aware of his body, the Antarkarana is awake and with his antarkarana he knew that if his body went any further up, it would tear his skull apart.  Kashinathdada, in his infinite compassion and mercy, suddenly said, Om Om Om, three times.  The sound came from the Shivlinga and there was a strong throb which Gurudev felt in his body and his prana which were soaring up fell down.

Gurudev left the temple but could barely walk a step and his body would go flying again in the air.  At that time he closed his eyes and there was a sentence there which said, “Eat something.  (The sentence was in Gujarati and it said, “Tara petma pathar nakha”)  He quickly had Mataji prepare some shiro and he ate some and then with much difficulty his body was able to stay on the ground.

I wonder if the strong beat that I feel of late, and I feel it just once but it is enough to break my meditation is the same beat Gurudev was describing?  In any event, that strong beat has to be mastered in order to stay in deep meditation for a long time!

Jan 20

Third Eye

The opening of the third eye is gradual at best.  These are the things that happen

1)  It becomes easier for the eye balls to relax and remain upwards

2) Once it becomes habitual and natural, one realizes that the agna chakra slowly opens upwards

3) When it turns upwards, one can start to see the subtle world easier.  Initially it is not as vivid but nevertheless, its presence is very clearly felt without any thoughts of ambiguity

4) Events about to happen become obvious.  Initially this is restricted to the immediate future relating to oneself. Slowly more distant events unfold and then events related to family and friends

5) Lately, I have realized that the color of the aura around great individuals is different.  Each great Mahatma or liberated soul has a certain characteristic aura.  My gurudev  Sombargiriji Maharaja, his aura is golden yellow.  Kashinathdadas aura is pure white.  My connection to Kashinathdada has been with ease today and was continous.  I feel blessed.

6)  In order to remain established in this position or status, one has to make sure there is not the least bit of emotional reaction

7)  This reminds me of the incident when Yukteshwar Maharaja went to vist his Guru Lahiri Mahashaya and could not see Babaji standing in the doorway.  He was encouraged to remain more firmly established at the third eye.  I am unable to stay there at all times. I can only be there and simultaneously engage in the subtle world and this world rarely.

Jan 19

Ganesh

Lord Ganesh was extremely kind and compassionate towards me.  Last night, like I normally do, every so often when I wake up from my sleep samadhi, I immediately go back to a chant or mantra.  I kept on chanting Hanumanji and for the last 2 hours before I woke up, all I could see was Ganesh. 

You may ask why did I not change over to Ganesh and it is due to some major flaws in my own chitta.  However, even though Lord Ganesh knew about it, he continued to remain there with me, enveloping me all over for those 2 hours.

I did not pay any attention to it when I woke up.  Such instances are quite common. However, as I was leaving to go to work, my mother told me, today is a big festival, it is a special day of celebration of Ganesh!

Thus my vision was real.

Lastly, when I say dream samadhi, it is not a dream but it is samadhi.  So how do you tell the difference?

1) When you wake up, you wake up immediately feeling refreshed. (Source Mangalgiriji Maharaja, Swami Shivohams disciple)

2) The dream, the vision is very vivid, picterusque and crystal clear.

3) Most importantly, in my opinion, is that all my prana leaves the body and is within.  My whole body is stiff and immobile, and esp. the limbs have lost sensation

4) In the past my samadhi was so deep, even my pager and phone would go off and I would not hear it.  If anyone has a pager, then it is one of the shrillest, most annoying sound, that I suspect the american medical association has insisted it be that way, so it can wake up the dead.  The corollary to this is that if any disciple mistakenly thinks he or she has reached the highest, stop and think.  Did your body become entirely numb?  One cannot go into higher planes without the prana withdrawing from the body.

Jan 17

Gautamkaka

I have started translating the book written by Gautamkaka.  It is under the blog gautamkaka.wordpress.com

It describes the great tradition of our lineage which started 1000 years ago and still continues

Jan 17

Guidelines for Yoga / Rules of Yoga

I changed the name from rules to guidelines. The reason for calling it rules, is because in my opinion, doing yoga is like going into battle where one is constantly battling ones sanskaras.  In other words, in order to win this battle, certain rules must be followed.

If one reads any scriptures regarding Yoga and this is again repeatedly stated in the Bhagavada Gita that in order to make progress, the disciple must follow certain rules. 

1)In the Gita, it states those who eat, sleep, work and have recreational activities in moderation will succeed.

2) A yogi should not speak too much and isolation is preferable

3) Ramkrishna Paramhansa said that a physician or lawyer will not achieve liberatation or Moksha in that birth.

4) Vivekananda said that if you are in a bad mood just go and stay in your own room instead of spreading the bad vibrations to the rest of the world.

5) Mother said that moods are the most infective thing in the world, more infective than even a viral infection or cold

6) Why did they only allow certain people in the temple in the past?

7) Vivekananda recomended and all other books in Yoga state that one should have one owns private space which he or she uses regularly to meditate

8 ) In Mahayoga Vigyana it goes into great detail about the rules and even goes to the extent that if you want to truly achieve salvation, you should not even eat food outside your own place or house. If you do this,then you give away half of your spiritual endeavour to the person where you ate.  On the brighter side, one should always try to feed a great saint, so you can collect the fruits of his works!

9) Gurudev has said that while preparing food, one should constantly chant the name of God and great saints

10) Gurudev told me that one should never eat at a place where someone has died and has gone to lower or darker subtle worlds.  He then said, almost every house in the world, there is someone who has died and gone to the darker subtle worlds.

Anyway, these are just general day to day living conditions for rapid spiritual progress.  They sound harsh, but what is the reason!  The reason for all of them is prana.  In all of our interactions, the one universal “transaction” is the prana.  A spiritualized prana can take us within and to the higher chakras like agna chakra and give us liberation.  However, we constantly fail in our efforts.  Why is it?  This is due to the negative pull to the outside world.  This negative pull to the outside world comes from an impure and unhealthy diet (including meat, fish, eggs, stale food, spicy food, etc). 

When we talk it is not only words that are exchanged but also prana is exchanged!  This complex interplay of prana, and if one is less developed, we are unable to withstand the negative effects of the other persons prana.  Don Miguel Ruiz, the author of the four agreements, when he died and was watching this world from above, describes seeing this constant exchange of prana between people when they talked etc.  This is why it is ordained that if you want to make spiritual progress only stay in the company of those who are strong in Yoga (satsanga) and do not interact with those who do not have faith.

So in order to prevent this outword pull constantly exerted by the world (on the spiritualized prana), one should talk less, prefer isolation, eat healthy, stay in good company, have ones own place of regular meditation, go to places where this spiritualized prana can assist  you in going deeper in meditations (hence certain temples, Siddha pithas etc).

A few more points. 

1) In the exchange of prana, there is a subtle exchange of certain karmas too.   Be careful when you practice spiritual healing because the karmas and moods of the other person will affect you unless you know how to rejuvenate yourself

2) A spiritualized prana is the same as an awakened shakti or awakening of the kundalini.  It requires a living Guru.   If you do not have a living Guru, it would be impossible to see or experience this.  We will roam in the world of theory but not actually see the interplay of prana. (like Don Miguel Ruiz saw it literally)

3) This is why Ramkrishna said a physician cannot achieve moksha because of the intense interplay of prana.  Having said that, one of his foremost disciple was a physician, and he did get liberated.  (More on it at a later time).  His name was Nag Mahashaya

4) When money is donated to charity or given to a saint, we give away our Karma (slowly) and receive spiritualized prana from them.  This of course would only happen if the person is a true saint. On the other hand, taking money, we are slowly incurring a debt and compiling a mass of  prana that pulls us down. This is why Ramkrishna said, lawyers cannot achieve moksha.   Having said that, Vishnutirthji Maharaja was an attorney and achieved the highest!

5) When I was in medical school, I asked my resident psychiatrist, how can I know if a patient is really bipolar.  He said, it is very easy. If while talking with the patient you feel very elated, you know this patient is in the manic phase of the bipolar.  Same thing applies to someone depressed.  The mood catches us and affects us.

6) This is why one should chant the name of God and think of God especially while cooking so the food we eat has the positive spiritual vibrations

7) Lastly, when one reaches a very high stage, one not only sees the effects of prana with the above, but suddenly begins to see that even if you think of someone you exchange the prana.  Knowing this, the disciple finally gives everything up and only surrenders to God constantly.  As it is said in the Gita, Sarva Dharman paritajya mamekam sharnam vraja, meaning Arjuna give everything up (all dharma – the word dharma refers to the properties of the mind,intellect, senses, body etc) and come only to me (me as stated by Krishna bhagwana refers to his highest self when established in the divine.  The same Divine that Jesus called I and my Father are one etc. He is the nameless and we have given him a name, He is everything and yet we seek for him everywhere).

Jan 16

SRF lessons

There are other countless references to Yogananda here in my blogs.  I will focus here more on some of “mudras” referred to in Yoga books and by Yogananda Maharaja in his SRF lessons.

There are three techniques that were revealed in general by Yogananda Maharaja

1) Hung sau technique

2) Jyoti Mudra (in ancient terms it went by other terms Shambhvi or Shan Mukhi Mudra)

3) Aum technique.

I will focus mostly on Jyoti Mudra here because it covers the other 2 mudras and if done perfectly, it automatically becomes a kriya yoga. 

First let us get the fundamentals clear. 

Prana is not the breath.  Breathing is the result of the activity of prana.  Just like smoke is the result of a fire. 

Kriya yoga is also known has kevali pranayama or kevali or kevala kumbhaka  (in the ancient text books and repeatedly stated by Yogananda Maharaja in the book God talks with Arujuna, the treatise written by him to clarify everything in Bhagavada Gita).  Pranayama is control of the prana. (prana and ayama means control).  Kevali pranayama is when prana activity is silenced.  What is the effect of this?  Breathing stops.  Just like when you extinguish the fire smoke is no longer there.  Hatha yogis, try to control the breathing hoping to stop the prana or in other words try to stop the smoke without stopping the fire or try to stop the effect without stopping the cause.  To repeat myself, in Kriya yoga, prana stops and the external manifestation is breathing has stopped.  One should not assume because we have held the breath, prana has stopped!

Now, we are ready to talk and understand Jyoti Mudra and understand why it is indispensible. 

In this mudra, the disciple uses his or her hands to cover their eyelids, thumbs to cover the ears and fingers to cover the nostrils.   This is the physical aspect to it. Merely performing this physically will lead you nowhere. 

Now that this mudra is done physically what next?  

The slight physical pressure on the eyelids causes a mixture of light by stimulation of the retina and some light of the divine is there also.  (refer to God talks with Arjuna chapter 6). Covering the ears, one begins to hear some sort of sound that is mostly a physical sound from the various organs of the body.  In order not to get distracted by the sound of the breathing, slowing the respiration or even holding it for very short durations can be helpful.

Once this is done, one must turn our attention (the word is attention not mind), completely within, the eyeballs turned upwards towards the center of the forehead or agna chakra and with all ones might and heart (reference the bible), search for the divine within.  He will manifest either in the sound of a roar (not the sounds coming from the body), or a more intense light, a lot more intense than the light from the physical pressure.  One must completely let go of all demands of the mind or the intellect or of the body.  This part, to let go completely is very difficult.  The body can be trained to let go completely (slowly) by the energizing exercises as taught by Yogananda. 

If these steps are done perfectly, i.e. one has ones attention completely within, one begins to see the light and the sounds and lets go of all and willingly surrenders all to the divine and does so fearlessly, then Kriya yoga or kevali happens completely.  The breathing is automatically arrested.  The prana from the rest of the body automatically and spontaneously turns within and starts going up through the sushumna (actually chitra and vajra and brahmanadi within the sushumna) to ascend to agna chakra.  This is Siddha yoga, this is the third step written in Maha yoga vigyana called Parivajra (meaning renunciate or sanyasi).  Here one has truly relinquished everything and one is freely roaming in the skies of Agna chakra.  Here khechari mudra is automatically done.  The word khe meaning sky and chari meaning roamer.  Yes, one can also taste the nectar giving long life and immortality also.  Yes, the person who is at this step is a hansa.  Very few reach this state of hansa and this place is the true Mansarovar.

Thus all aspects of the SRF lessons are extremely crucial and very intricately connected.  One must never question the words written by all great liberated teachers.  I would urge all disciples, no matter what path you follow to subscribe to the SRF lessons by Yogananda Maharaja.  The fee is  nominal but the rewards and the impact of his immortal divine words are beyond comprehension.   Even if you know this, read it again.  There is a big difference between reading how to cook and actually cooking and tasting it!.    Unless one has perfected the technique and is able to taste it at will, read again and again till one has reached the goal.  Like Vivekananda said, Awake, Arise and stop not till thy goal is reached.

Dineshuncle explained the meaning of the cross to me.  If you look at the Jyoti Mudra carefully, it forms a cross!  This is the true meaning of bearing or wearing the cross in the bible!

5 days ago, Kashinathdada spent the whole night with me.  I will write about this in more detail later.  However a few pearls from it.

I bowed to Kashinathdada in the tradition of sanatana dharma.  This bowing is called Sasthanga Dandwata pranama.  When I did that, dada touched all eight angas of my body.  Sasthanga means sa ashta anga meaning with all eight parts of the body.  The significance of this is as follows : the eight angas are the eight parts of yoga.  One must surrender to dada at every step of yoga, starting from yama niyama to samadhi and the steps become perfected when touched or blessed by dada.  Sasthanga dandavata pranama is only permitted by a marda.  Here the word marda means someone who is fearless and does not mean male.  If one does this with fear in the heart, yogic results will not be achieved rapidly.

I am eternally in debt to My gurudev Sombargiriji maharaja and dada for blessing me with Jyoti mudra technique and awakening my shakti and leading me to higher and higher places.

Jan 09

Paramhansa Yogananda, Out of body experiences, Subtle worlds

My vision from this morning was a very clear perception of Yogananda maharaja before his samadhi.  I saw him being brought in, in a wheel chair in a banquet hall.  He did not want to go to the stage / center seat in a wheel chair and he made the supreme effort and made it to the central chair with assistance without the wheel chair.  His face was shining with the brilliance of the light of God.  He knew his last minutes had come.  He had a somber smile on his face.  I bowed to him in my mind.  I got a little distracted and could not hear him speak – or his last words.  The next thing I knew he had collapsed and passed away. 

I saw his body lying in the coffin – such a serene peaceful smile.  Then my samadhi was broken!

A few more words about Yogananda Maharaja.  He is still very much active in the subtle world.  It should be noted that having an out of body experience or OBE as many people call it is not any proof or is not spritual.  On the other hand, a very advanced spiritual person can have the mastery of OBE.   Besides this gross physical world, there is the subtle world.  In the subtle world, we communicate with the subtle body.  It is the subtle body that has the OBE.  We generally lump the subtle world as all in one.  The truth is there a many many subtle worlds.  Each subtle world has its own barrier and we need the right visa to enter the extremely high subtle worlds.  Many people who have OBE (out of body experience) go to the inferior worlds where there is chaos, mayhem and a lot of evil elements.  Some may go to worlds that I call as lateral worlds which have a similar build or make up to this world.  Very few people can go to the higher subtle worlds.  There is a wide range of higher subtle worlds also.  One has to have extreme purity, surrender and love for God to go to the higher worlds.

So, please dear reader, do not dwell on OBE.  Yearn for the purity and surrender and then you can go to the true sublime higher worlds.  It is like it is stated in the bible, in John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

There is a detailed description of these other subtle worlds in Yoganandas book Autobiography of a Yogi in the chapter the resurrectio of my Guru.  Moreover there is a book called the Tibetan book of the  dead.  Lastly, Gurudev has described these worlds in detail in “Muktashastra”.  Gurudev has decribed the exact location of these subtle worlds and the point of communication of us with the subtle world.  Needless to say, there is a corresponding location in this body which leads us to the other worlds.

So, is my knowledge all theoritical?  By all means no.  I go to these subtle worlds regularly.  I have been to “Sadhan dhama” twice and I have described this in my blogs in more detail elsewhere.  This “sadhana dhama” is the place which my subtle Guru Vishnutirthji Maharaja took me to.  In the higher subtle worlds there is more pleasure, more clarity.  The rules of seeing through the eyes no longer exist. One can see things with any of the senses!  If one gets thirsty or wants certain things, simply by willing it, it is produced instantly.  There is no effort or work needed like it is needed in this world.  If one has finished ones duties completely in this world, and we still have unfuilfilled desires, they are fulfilled here before we can move on to the causal world. 

There are subtle worlds which only deal with past and future events – in the hindu literature they are given the world Chitra lekha or chitra kuta.  If our consciousness can remain there, then the events of this world begin to unfold.

Beyond these subtle worlds, there is the causal world.  Perhaps I can describe them at some other time.

There are four states of consciousness – Awake or Jagrat, Dream or swapna, Dreamless sleep or Sushupti and Turya or samadhi.  Gurudev used to say, we can only experience three of the four consciousness.  If the shakti is fully awakened, then dream or swapna is eliminated and we go to Samadhi or Turya.  If the shakti is not awake then we only experience Awake, dream and dreamless.

Jan 08

Meditations

Last 3 days the meditations have been deeper. No matter how deep you go, you can always go deeper! 2 days ago, my meditation was so deep that all that was left was an awareness of a mass of energy. I suspect that this is the “siddhapitha” one of the places between Agna chakra and Sahastrar. The next day I was not able to go so deep but what was left was consciousness but shakti or energy was not experienced. Todays meditation was different. It was as if finally shakti was working on Vishudha chakra and turning it upwards. I had asked Gurudev where is the Jeeva or soul located. This has NOT been clearly described in the literature. His answer unequivocably was Vishudha chakra. I accepted but today I was able to experience it.

Paramhansa Yogananda had said, if a disciple experiences pure soul, he is on the verge of liberation. (ref God talks with Arjuna). The person who can experience this chakra can clearly understand what Ramana Maharshi meant when he said, “There are only 2 choices – to look within or look outside” Until now, my understanding of the choice was a choice of the mind but that is not true. He was referring to something much higher. The choice is the choice of the soul. Not the choice of the intellect or desire or the emotions or even ego. When the soul decides to look within and above, the Vishudha chakra turns upwards and the prana from the body starts climbinb up. Otherwise, the soul looks downwards and outwards and remains entangled in the worldly matters through the representative ego at the anahata chakra and subsequently builds up emotions and desires and then a fake intelligence to support the ego and emotions. This downward trend started from ego at anahata chakra, emotions or chitta (which includes memories) at manipura chakra and intelligence at swadhisthan chakra. Confirmation of my words is supported by Paramhansa Yogananda in God talks with Arjuna and also from my personal experience.

Thus with the soul wishing to look within, the Vishudha chakra turns upwards, the prana from the body begins to withdraw and then soars above to agna chakra. A very nice description of the prana moving between Anahata chakra and agna chakra is given in Mahayoga vigyan by Yogendra vigyani. I re read it all today and even sentences which I did not understand became clear. It is only when our prana goes to this level, does the disciple begin to have some degree of control over prana and mastery over nature only comes when it is perfected and can be taken to Agna chakra.

Paramhansa Yogananda has said that there are 3 stopping places.

1) Muladhara. Here the disciple is caught between the outward sounds including bodily sounds and the desire to go within.

2) Anahta chakra . This is the second stopping place.

3) Agna chakra. The description I have given is between Agna chakra and Anahata chakra.

Hope this helps someone who is walking the path and wants a clear and concise description of it.

For a Yogi, true pratyahar, the literal meaning being prati which means towards and ahar is meals – is withdrawaing of the prana from the limbs and to make it ascend.

This part is now natural and automatic – occurs when I look above with my eyes.

One more thing, the experience of consciousness is and should be complete. The spiritual eye can simultaneously experience matther, the inner world and the prana. This has been written by Yogananda Maharaja also.

I will end this blog which can summarize this part of the ascent to the divine. “”To make changes in this world and in ones destiny or the destiny of others around you, one must not think of change, nor should one desire the change nor should one imagine the change. All you have to do is will the change without thinking, desiring or imagining the change!”

Jan 03

Mistakes

There are two ways of self improvement.  The negative way is the way of learning from our mistakes.  The positive way is by the love of God. 

The negative way :  Let us say for example we love Pizza.  We go to a pizza place and pig out.  That very night we have severe abd. pain, heartburn, nausea and vomiting.  Next time there is an opportunity to eat pizza we will be more cautious because we are afraid to eat, we do not want that pain.  However, the desire to pig out (gluttony) has not been abolished and our love for pizza is still there. 

The positive way : In the same example, we love pizza and have an opportunity to eat Pizza. However, we decide that instead of having pizza we want something higher and we decide to commune with God and meditate.  In this situation if our contact with God is complete and full, we have given our heart to God and we have immense joy and peace that is so great that not only do we not suffer the pain of eating too much but with repeated deep meditation, even our innate desire for pizza is replaced by something higher – the love of God. 

We can take our pick of method  The negative way takes ages and several lifetimes but the positive way can be done fairly expeditiously if we have the right Guru and awakening. 

In truth, the desire to eat is not the desire of the soul or spirit but is the desire of the covering of the soul, the heart.

Jan 01

Happy New Year

While the rest of the world was watching the news channel, drinking or at Times square waiting for the ball to fall, I was lying in bed. Right around midnight, Gurudev started talking and telling me things. I do not remember a lot. However, one of the few things that struck out was something he always told everyone that inorder to make spiritual progress “Granthi nu bhedan thavu joiye. Trana Granthi che. Brahma granthi, Vishnu Granthi ane Rudra Granthi. Brahma granthi Swadhisthana chakra ma che, Vishnu granthi manipur ane Rudra granthi anahata chakra”. Translation “To make spiritual progress one has to penetrate three knots called Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. They are located at Swadhisthana, Mannipur and Anahata chakra” The three knots or granthi represent Rajas, Satwa and Tamas gunas. They are the A, U and M of Om.

So what does it mean to penetrate or untie the knots of the three granthis? Normally, when anything happens there is a reaction in one or two or three of the gunas immediately. This occurs in a fraction of a second. Most of the world gets entangled thereafter, a very few persistent sadhakas try to fight and contain the reaction and the sadhakas of the higher orders even prevent that initial fraction of a second reaction. Those who can prevent the initial, even fraction of a second reaction have penetrated or gone through the knots and are called Hansas.

This is called granthi bhedan. Without doing it successfully we cannot experience or enjoy going to the Agna chakra.

Dec 31

Gurudev

Deep in my heart, for a long time, I have wanted to touch and hug my Gurudev.  He is everything for me. Yesterday, I my wish was fulfilled.  I spent a lot of time with Gurudev, hugging him, giving him a kiss and bowing repeatedly at his feet.  I told Gurudev, my spritual progress was good.  He of course was fully aware of it. In his ever so gentle and loving way, he caught on to the subtle ego I had.  He immediately said, I have put in my consciousness and prana into  you!  What a gentle and loving way to remind me “Beware traveller of the traps of ego” 

I enjoyed talking with Dineshuncle today.  Everytime I talk with him, I get the impression of talking with someone who lives in infinity, who is vast and is every so kind, gentle, humble and above all has the love as wide as an Ocean.  He truly is a Krupa sagar.  I wish I had his humbleness and love and genuine caring for everyone.  This caring and love he has is natural for him – for me the love and caring is something I have to sort of remind myself that it is the right thing.  For him it is natural.  I bow to him repeatedly for this genuine love!

Dec 29

Mohangiriji Maharaja

Mohangiriji Maharaja

Kashinathdada

“I came out of Samadhi for you”

Those were the words ringing in my ears when I woke up from Savikalpa Samadhi.  I was bowing down before Kashinathdada  and Gurudevs Samadhi with thoughts of dismay that the great souls like Mohangiriji Maharaja have their personal success but dont even turn back to help others.  With those thoughts I left the Deri of Dada.  I went to a room and Lo and behold I saw Mohangiriji Maharaja.  His words, “I came out of Samadhi for you”  The whole room was engulfed in his purity and love.  His purity was very child like. Innocent.  I am at a loss to describe it with words but the roomwas covered in a white light of purity and innocence.  He asked me personal questions about my meditation and assured me that his blessings were there for me – til I reach the highest.  He then told me not everything is written in spiritual books.  For eg, there are other forms of Diksha.  Sapan diksha and Agni Diksha.  I did not understand either.  He continued, Agni diksha in a minor form is like the smoke from a bidi touching the disciple and awakening his shakti!

I wanted to so much to serve him and to my greatest pleasure he allowed me to touch him and press his legs!  My heart knew no ends to the joy.  His legs were extremely thin and emaciated.  (A result of being in samadhi for over 50 years).  I pressed his legs gingerly and he said you can press harder.  I pressed his legs for a while and then he got up and said he has to go.  As he left, I saw Manilal near by.  He blessed me and left.

Somewhere in between Chetnas sukshma body appeared and Mohangiriji Maharaja blessed her also.  His skin was glistening with spiritual light and his color was darker than what is depicted in the pictures.  His eyes were like laser as Gautamkaka has described.  Even those laser like light, he had subdued them for my benefit because I doubt if this body could have endured all of his light in all his glory.

When I woke up, in a little while Chetna woke up coughing incessantly. At that time I was wondering if this was a dream or samadhi.  I told Chetna to take a sip of water praying to Mohangiriji Maharaja and her cough subsided immediately.  As I had told Chetna to take Mohangiriji Maharaja’s name, I did that for personal confirmation about the reality and accuracy of my experience. 

His words are still ringing in my ears.  “I came out of Samadhi for you”

Dec 28

More clarifications

These clarifications are from Yogananda Maharaj and some from personal experience.  There are three worlds.  Gross physical world, the subtle world and the causal or karana world.  The three forces, a sort of autonomic intelligence, hidden from the human eye are Virata, Hiranyagarbha and Ishwara respectively. 

To give an eg.  the function of Virata is to control the gross physical universe, all the physical properties of the universe including circling of planets around the star, mother nature in the world, gravity etc. 

On an individual level, the three governing forces for the gross physical body, sukshma body and the causal body are called Vishwa, Tejas and Pragna.  For eg. we do not have to tell the cells in the body to replicate or repair etc, it is done automatically.  Scientists call it genetics but the Yogi refers the governing intelligence to Vishwa because there is a little more than just genetics to it.

Collectively these 6 forces are hidden forces.  In the Mahabharata, there is the story of Ganga throwing her 7 children into the river.  6 of these “children” are the intelligent forces governing the individual and the gross 3 universes.  They remain hidden / submerged in the flow of Ganga.  The sevent child that remains hidden is called “abhasa chaitanya”, meaning although the entire universe it God, the universe remains as a reflection of God, not directly representing God.  The eight child, Bhisma is the universal ego governing all three worlds.

One more aspect of clarification.  Ishwara – intelligent force governing the causal world lives in Anahata Chakra.  Thus, when the anahata chakra is pointing downwards, we call it Jeeva Kruta Maya.  This has been described in great detail by Gurudev in Muktashastra.  With constant practice, if we continually destroy the Jeeva Kruta Maya, then Ishwara or the upturned Anahata chakra which now reflects Ishwara is able to make all the necessary changes in the causal world and then subsequently in the gross world also.  Gurudev has given many examples of this in Muktashastra.  For eg. if we are meditating on this chakra, and all of a sudden we have the thought of collecting money from our debtor, the disciple says, “No, this is not my job, let Ishwara do it if he likes” Thus destroying the Jeeva kruta maya, Ishwara now takes over and the job is done without us moving from our meditation. 

In Mahayoga vigyana and other Yogic text books, they have described Ishwara at Anahata chakra.  I hope this explanation helps clarify the meaning and difference between Parmatma and Ishwara.

Dec 25

Meditation

Today’s meditation was exceptionally good. After all it was Christmas ! Yogananda maharaja has described that the halfway meditation is when one is at agnachakra the streams of prana are seen rolling back from the body going back to Agnatha chakra
This is what I experienced. The color if the streams of Prana or light is light yellow. This is the beginning of seeing the spiritual eye in it’s completeness. The body becomes numb and we see both sthula and sukshma world simultaneously. The rays of the sun are the prana going back to the sun which is the holy ghost or om or the real gayatri (sun) or the outer rim of the spiritual eye. The rays are called the stallions in Gita per yogananda maharaj. This is also the experience when a person who is liberated is about to die and this is how Paul died daily as he said in the bible
The inner circle is blue and the inner most is a white star. This is the perfect description of the eye per yogananda. I have had preliminary rushes of it on many occasions but the vision is not perfected yet. Today’s vision was at will almost instantly and what a Marvel it is to see the streams of prana rolling back. After a while as we keep gazing into the eye we loose identity and become the light itself. This is what shankracharya maharaj meant when he said a caterpillar becomes a bee by the constant humming of the bee in the ears of the caterpillar. Here the humming is the sound of om. The intoxication of the experience lasted all day.

Dec 25

Jesus

There are other stories about Jesus Christ in these blogs.

There are two quotes I will refer to.   Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”  This is from Acts 2:38.

The word repent is poorly understood.  Yukteshswar maharaj and Yogananda maharaj have explained it concisely and although I was slow in grabbing the import, the only way to repent is to forego ones “evil” ways.  What is the evil way?  We have spent birth after birth enjoying our senses and not once have we turned back to God, giving up all pleasures of the flesh.  Repent starts when we turn back towards God, giving up the pleasures of the flesh.  Giving up the pleasures of the flesh in the imagination is not truly giving it up.  To truly give it up, one must turn the prana or the source of pleasure and enjoyment in the flesh away from the senses and back towards God.  That is true repenting.  When one is willing to do this, then one can be baptized.  In the true baptism, we are born again, in the spirit and at that point, everything is turned inside out.  Moreover, the divine begins to manifest in one of five ways initially and then later all five ways simultaneously and taking us to samadhi.  The five manifestations are – divine smell, divine taste, divine touch, divine light and divine sounds or Nada.  The greatest and best manifestation according to Gorakhnath maharaja is Nada.  However, one has to be EXTREMELY cautious in the interpretation of the nada.  In our egotistic rush of assumption of progress we make the mistake of thinking the bodily sounds as nada but that is not so.  The bodily sounds include “tamra”, “throbbing” “Purring” etc.  The truest sounds are extremely melodious, produces siddhi and one can listen to them for hours without tiring or becoming forgetful. According to Yukteshwar Maharaj, in the holy science, baptism is when we get immersed in the peculiar knocking sounds of Om.   Moreover, in the baptism  our thoughts are no longer ours, our emotions, our body they all are outside us, and no longer are we troubled or bothered by them.  It is like throwing a pebble in the ocean or at a moutnain – that is how thoughts and emotions appear.  As Vivekananda Maharaj said, a mosquito was sitting on the bulls horn and after a while the mosquito said, Mr. Bull, I hope this is not troubling you and the bull said, not at all…invite your whole family!

Thus, when we repent, when we are baptised, the holy spirit descends upon us!  The holy spirit being OM, the word which can then descend upon us from the Agna chakra down from sukshma world to the sthula or gross physical world.

In short, this is a perfect description of Yoga where one learns to master ones prana, reverse its flow from the senses towards God, and at that time we can experience being born again or Dwija and progress valiantly towards God.

Another quote is from Mark 12 : 30.   This quote was one of the favorite quotes of Vivekananda.  He stated that even if all the scriptures in the world gets destroyed and only this quote remains, it is sufficient to lead you to God and freedom.

And you shall love the Lord your God:

  • with all your heart,
  • with all your soul,
  • with all you mind,
  • with all your strength,

Here the word to clarify is all your strength and mind. The word strength refers to prana.  One must love God with all our prana or strength.  This once again means one must offer all of our prana, from all parts of our body to God.  This is the true offering and true surrender to God.  When we so turn back towards God, repenting as we said above, our prana gets cut off from our senses and ascends the stairs of heaven (sushumna) and goes to God.   Our entire bodily strength is our prana.  Without the energy of prana the body would not function, not a cell in the body would function, nor would we be able to move, talk etc.  Only a Yogi can understand it.  This is to be experienced  not just have a theoritical knowledge.

More subtly, this verse also shows the interdependence of the mind and the prana and the heart.  If one can silence the prana, the mind and the heart (emotions) gets silenced or if the mind gets silenced then the other two gets silenced and if the heart is silent, then the prana and mind gets silenced. This was often quoted by Gurudev, Sombargiriji Maharaj, and by Yogananda Maharaja and Yogendra Vigyani from Shaktipata.  I would like to caution the user, please DO NOT mistake prana as the breathing process.  If there is any doubt, please read the criticism on Patanjali Yoga sutras by Vivekanada in the book called Raja Yoga.

Dec 23

Fishbowl

After 2 days of struggle, I was finally able to go back to my true consciousness.  When certain karmas are about to come into play, or if one does something that is not appropriate, the first thing that happens is the consciousness gets clouded and one is no longer able to go that deep.  Yes, the light maybe there, the sounds maybe there but the true turning over, the true layer of being within just cant happen. 

That is why Gurudev said, “Antaskarana Man ek pana dagho nathi chalto”  Meaning not even one blemish is permitted in the Antaskarana. 

Swami Vivekananda said that we are like the fishermen who love their fish smell.  What is the fish smell?  Our consciousness is so used to depending on thoughts, emotions, the concept of body, that if we ever get out of it, the consciousness gets uncomfortable and longs for those things again!  Truth of the matter is when one is established in he the true consciousness, it has no need of any of those things – thoughts, emotions, body etc.  When one stays in ones true consciousness for longer and longer durations, we slowly develop a new of seeing things, communicating, understanding etc.  The consciousness does things intuitively.  All of those things and all the while remaining in calmness or in bliss or in joy. 

The scriptures in Yoga have repeatedly said that the Yogi should remain in isolation, not talk much if he truly wants to make progress. Why is that?  I now realize the reason. With every interaction – either verbal or by thinking of someone or by communicating with letters or on the internet, the Yogi, gets in touch with all the emotional, thoughts and karmic garbage of the other person. If he is not able to filter and prevent them, he or she will accumulate the garbage of the other person.  This is not a fancy of my mind.  I never believed in it. However, now lately, I am able to feel and occasionally see these things.  Seeing them gives me more control and the ability to prevent the accumulation of the garbage. 

Where do these things accumulate ?  They accumulate in the subtle aura, the sukshma world that is right next to this gross physical world.  There are many other higher worlds, but this sukshma world or in the words of Sri Aurobindo, the subtle physical is where these things are stored.  It is the meeting place of the gross world, sukshma worlds, the subconscient worlds and the dream worlds !  What a chaotic market place.  This is the world where the more advanced disciple is able to keep aloof and see it – like a drop of water on a lotus.  Here one can see the future of something about to happen in the immediate future, here one can have some control over the karmas and make some changes in it for others, and here one is able to transfer karmas from one person to the other. 

I can state these things but it is worthless since it is meant to be experienced and slowly gain mastery over it.

A while ago, I was trying to move ahead but one of the Rudras at the Anahata chakra stopped me and said no.  He will not let me proceed.  You have karmas to pay.  I tried to explain this to Hasmukhkaka.  I said one of the worst things that happens as a consequence of karmas is one cannot unfold ones shakti completely and it prevents our spiritual progress!  However, I was going to help and expound on it, but he immediately said, he has to go.  I have seen this many times!  Anytime I am established within, I have tremendous power and the ability to help others in their spiritual progress but for whatever reason, instead of having silence and humility their emotions and ego gets excited and they see me as being egotistic or get unhappy with me or suddenly have the urge to hang up and go!  How wonderful is the machinery God has created that unless one is truly ready, the other person cannot even be helped!

Who am I to help? No one!  The true consciousness, which is I, when seated there can help with a mere thought or will!

Dec 21

Vice and Virtue

Virtue is a problem to liberation just as much vice is.  One must rise above both.  There is a story in the Bible about Abraham who was given instructions by God to take his son to the top of Mount Sinai and sacrifice his son.  Just before he was about to sacrifice his son, God told him to stop.

To all human understanding this is wrong and God should never have asked this.  However, the test was two fold

1) A test of true and total surrender to the will of God

2) A test to see if even while performing the act with surrender, if there was any reaction in his mind that this action is wrong.   If there was a reaction and judgement value of wrong, then one has not truly gone beyond virtue.

Of course, this cannot be understood or explained unless one is on the threshold of overcoming Sattwic guna. 

It took me a long time to realize this.  After having done some culturally questionable action, my mind was constantly nagging me that I had done something wrong and I should be punished.  This reaction is wrong and one has to make an effort to rise above the concept of virtue and vice.   However, this concept of “sinned” can only be eliminated if one is truly immersed and God and does only those actions approved by God.

Yogananda has described that during meditation, if one is sufficiently advanced one can see a triangle.  The top of the triangle will be yellow referring to Sattwic guna.

The lower left is red displaying Rajas guna and the lower right is black referring to Tamas gune.   Usually, one color is brighter than the other suggesting a predominance in one particular guna.  When one is on the verge of liberation, all the colors are equally bright and the center shows a brilliant white light.

Last night while I was strugging to fight the emotions of I have sinned and I should be punished, I repeatedly saw the white light of God throughtout the night.  The more my eyes were fixed and gazed above, my prana and mind would withdraw from the body and I would see the white light.  Again and again, the emotions I have sinned and should be punished came up and brought me down to the physical universe.

I tried again in deep meditation to slowly overcome it

An advanced disciple is called a Hansa.  Just like the hansa is able to differentiate between milk and water, the disciple has to be able to discern between the pure vibration of the spirit which gets mixed with one of the 3 gunas in the agna chakra.  With every spiritual vibration, it stimulates the gunas too.  At the agna chakra one  has to be very alert and differentiate them and only focus ones gaze on the pure vibration of the spirit.  When he can do this, the disciple is called a hansa. 

This is very similar to the explanation given by Sanatakumar to Narada muni about the course of events a disciple has to follow for liberation.  For a more detailed explanation, the reader is referred to the book written by Rajmani Trigunait.

Dec 19

Random

Kumbh Mela : A place where many great saints gather.  One should attend to the Kumbh Mela.  In terms of Yoga, Kumbh means or refers to the head and mela is a gathering of the prana (withdrawn from the entire body).  When that happens, one can say, we have attended the kumbh mela.  Here all great divine souls are there.

Yesterday, something unusual happened.  We were at another physicians place.  A group of people were sitting.  I remained silent.  This was a different kind of silence.  Silence of the mind and was at the same time I was within.  While I was within, the mind, the people and the room was vibrating with my presence.  The people in reality were dead – meaning dead from the reality of God and his vibration. But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.  Everything was vibrating and the vibration was me.  I believe this was the universal prana and the beginnng of being established in Atman.  This is also known as Christ consciousness or son of God. 

Where is the proof?  The proof for me and me alone was the thoughts of everyone in the room were relatively more clear, their thoughts and their feelings. Not only that silently observing it, I was able to have some influence and control over it. 

I can understand why the great rishis call this world Maya – an illusion.  They refer to it as the divine lila.  This is because at t his level, it is an illusion since te world seems to be working based on the thoughts that arise from me!.  I could only stay in that for about an hour but it was interesting.  Interestingly there was no feeling in me.  A silent spectater. 

This reminds me of my experience a while ago.  I had an encounter with Maya or Satan.  Everyword that came from the divine was twisted and turned!  And suddenly this one maya became multiple and every multiplicity twisted everything, misrepresented everything that came from the Divie.  If the divine said Good, maya made and turned it into bad.  This was done by Maya not out of disrespect or hatred or uncaring.  It was just a royal mischief!  This is the beginning of creation.  A royal mischeif.  I am definately not at the stage where I can call it maya or sport.  For me it is a mischief – a very unpleasant mischeif.

These thoughts are similar to those of Mother, Sri Aurobindo, Bible, Paramhansa Yogananda. 

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).  The word he refers to Lucifer / Satan. 

Father of lies !  Lies refers to this creation.  Everything in this creation is a lie.  How is it a lie.  Everything is God and yet we see it not!  Everything is his love and we see it not!  Isnt that a great lie?  Satan, Maya makes us see this universe, this entire creation in a way that it is not!  What a mischief! What an illusion!  What a Lila!

The beginning of this witness truly occurs at the Agna chakra.  However, for the soul to experience this, the soul has to fully surrendered to God.  This complete surrender occurs when the Anahata chakra turns upwards.  When the anhata chakra turns upwards, the sound is that of the gong bell or a drum.  Some may experience it like hum, hum, hum. Out of the initial sohum, sa and aham gets dropped off and becomes hum.  This is the sound of Paundra – the conch bell of Bhima. The ego gets disintegrated.  Lately I have been able to to turn the anahata chakra upwards and remain in this for a while in meditation.  (ref God talks with Arujuna – Paramhansa Yogananda)

Dec 14

Energizing Exercises of the SRF (Self realization fellowship)

Paramhansa Yogananda has a series of lectures and pamphletes which are available to all who take the SRF fellowship and newsletter.

In the lessons, he talks about energizing exercises and also insits that all disciples practice it for 30 min to an hour a day. I could not understand the reason and thought it was part of modified asanas.  However, I finally have understood why it is important.  For the awakened shakti to rise up through the Sushumna, completely and freely, the body has to surrender also.  This step is difficult and can be achieved most easily if the body is voluntarily relaxed (or in other words, the body totally surrendered to the divine).  Just because our mind and intellect has surrendered it does not mean that the body has surrendered.  The body will continue to impose it demands such as need for food, sex, sleep, etc.

While talking on the subject of relaxing the body, I have realized why I have or need glasses.  The eyeball is not relaxed!  If one can slowly learn to relax the eyeball, keep it relaxed, eyeglasses could be dispensed off.

Dec 12

Faith

Today, I had a discussion with Aanal about Faith.  Faith in my opinion and also according to the scriptures and very succinctly written by Sri Aurobindo is something that is within and which is part of the soul. 

This is an inner conviction.  Unfortunately,  this faith is very poorly understood.  What most people have is a firm belief in certain things, a belief that is based on reading or experience or even worse a belief entirely based on a mental projection or fantasy.  This belief is something that is a product of the mind and NOT an inner conviction or faith which is something that is inherantlly present in the soul.  At other times there is a similar doubt present in the mind which again is another way Maya uses to prevent spiritual progress.  In both cases, the belief retards the progress by creating an illusion and masking the inner faith or doubt which also masks the reality of faith and prevents progress.

True faith can be shown in many examples. I will limit myself at present to 2 examples

1) At one time Shankaracharya was at the other side of the river, the side away from all of his disciples.  Suddenly he cried out and said something has happened to me, come here quickly. All of the disciples panicked, some looking for boats, others started to swim.  However, one disciple just started walking on the water.  Subsequently he came to be known has Padmapadacharya because whereever he walked on the water, a lotus (Padma) appeared and prevented him from drowning.  This is an example of faith.  There was no interjection from his mind of either that this will happen because Gurudev said so, nor was there any doubt.  It was just an inner faith!  Any activity of the mind either positive or negative mars and covers up true faith.

2) An example of Jesus Christ and Peter is well known where he was walking on water and  suddenly his mind began to doubt and he started drowning.  That is when Jesus said, “Ye men of little faith”. 

3) There are thousands of examples where people have had a strong belief in a certain set of scriptures, books such as the bible, Gita, Koran and in other misguided zealots, but when they have followed it, the results are not there and then they say the scriptures are wrong. Here the problem was they read certain things and based on their reading, they created a strong belief in it or a mental projection of the interpretation, and trusted the mental projection!  Anytime there is activity of the mind and one believes ones mental projection, one will not get the same results as true faith.

I end here with a quote from the Bible.   Please do not think you have faith perfected till you can move mountains!  Here Lord Jesus goes to the extent of saying, even if you have faith as little as a mustard seed, you can move mountains!

So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you,
 if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain,
“Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Matthew 17:20

Dec 09

Protected: From Within

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Dec 06

Pearls

I was asked, do you go to Church.  My answer was no, the Church comes to me. 

The real church is where there is love for God.

What is purity or a pure person?  A person who only has love and desires only for God, is pure.  Everyone else is impure.

Love demands nothing in return. The love for God is unconditonal and even if God puts you in hell, you still love him as much. 

We cannot help anyone.    Always use the word serving someone. It brings out humility and the idea of serving God and takes away the ego of action.

Anyone who believes they have given or done charity or given up pleasures in life has a long way to go.  Anyone who owns anything has a long way to go also.  Both ideas are wrong.  We own nothing, we possess nothing. All belongs to God and we make the mistake of feeling we own things, relations, family etc.  The free person is he who has no concept of owning something or anything.  He (or she) walks and does things freely, feeling to be a child of God or walking in his knowledge or identified with God, or his paramour (more dangerous though), etc !.  The free person can go to this state or frame of mind instantly!  We have nothing to give to God except ourselves.  Since the soul is very intricately associated with Prana, giving ones Prana is the highest one can do.  This prana is more than just the breath, it is the very substance that connects this world to the sukshma or subtle world, it is the power house that runs this house and in the highest form, runs the universe!

These excerpts are merely a re written compilation from the Bible, Sri Aurobindo, Vivekananda, MahaYogan Vigyana, Rajyoga, etc

Dec 05

A beacon!

Every human being is a beacon!  They are constantly emiting and transmiting vibes which attracts the universal vibrations which translate into karam.  This has been said by Patanjali, Mirdad and all great souls.  Every thought we have becomes a nidus which attracts similar universal vibrations.  One should constantly, no matter what and no matter what conditions always wish well !  This wishing well, should be from the inner most core of our being. 

Patanjali said ” An action may be done, thought of, or be done through someone else, but the resuls are the same”  According to Mirdad, every thought we have, circles around the world till it comes back to us in some form or the other. 

I now see, every so often, people as a beacon. What I see leaving them are the prana or subtle emanations which are constantly beaconing universal vibrations and we suffer the consequence.

A few more thoughts on deep meditation.

1)  When one truly goes to the deepest region of meditation (the horizontal progress), we finally reach the causal body.  How do we know we have reached the causal body?  There are a few signs.  One, the whole body becomes full of light.  It is as if the light from above engulfts the body.  Secondly, the true spiritual sounds of the vina, flute, gong bell all seem to be outside of us, not within us!  Third, there is unexplained joy – the anandmay kosha.  This joy is not the joy or pleasure coming from ego of having achieved something.  Fourth, the consciousness is fully turned inward and upward.  As a result thereof, the beginning of Samadhi starts.  One is able to shut of all external sounds etc at will.  Fifth, at this level, we have opened all our wealth of karmas.  Anyone who thinks bad of us takes away our bad karma and anyone who thinks good of us takes away our good karma.  We care for nothing, want nothing, and not a shred of possessiveness is left in any of the cells of the body

This is why, there was not a drop of water for 12 years in Mewar (Mewad).  The unfortunate people of Mewar could not appreciate Mirabai and looted all of her karmas!.  This is why in part, it is a great blessing that such advanced souls stay away from public life.  We in our limited intelligence will never be able to appreciate or be grateful to these higher beings.  Our disrespectful actions are often frowned upon by Shankar Bhagway and ordinary beings often end up paying dire consequences. 

My first experience of the causal body, rather my first vision of the causal body was at the funeral of Gautamkaka.  What does it look like and mind you it was merely a vision.  The causal body consists of the Sahastrar with the brahmanadi.  For a more detailed decription, the reader is urged to read God talks with Arjuna by Paramhansa Yogananda.

Now reaching the causal is easy.  It takes about 30 seconds or less.  This is what Dineshuncle often referred to as reaching the middle of the ocean!  Once there, one can truly say and feel oneself established in Yoga.  Once you reach that state, nothing can uproot it.  According to Aurobindo and Mother, this state is when there is reversal of the consciousness, or emergence of the psychic with complete emergence from the mental, vital and physical.  In the bible this state is referred to as being born again.  As it is said, verily verily I say unto thee that until a man is born again, he cannot go to the kingdom of God.

Once this reversal is complete, once we are deep in the causal body, it is easy to experience and visit the different heavens !

Dec 02

Nada

A common misconception is the hearing of Nada.  The truest of true nada occurs when the prana actually ascends in the sushumna.  These nadas have the following characteristics

1) Extremely soft, no longer heard by the physical body

2) Extremely pleasing and one truly just wants to hear it again and again

3) On hearing these nada 2 things emerge.  Samadhi and different kinds of Siddhis

4) Yogananda Maharaja has had a detailed description of the nadas.  I would strongly urge all disciples of any form of Yoga to read his book God talks with Arjuna, a 1500 page long explanation of Bhagvada Gita.  In my opinion, there never was and perhaps never will be a better explanation of Gita than this book.  In short, right before the war, in the first chapter, Arujuna decides not to fight.  At that time, on the battlefield, Bhisma, Dronacharya, Duryodhana all sound their conch (shankh) !  These sounds refer to the gross sounds of the physical universe, the first encounter and obstacle when one is trying to meditate.  The sound of the breathing, blood circulation etc.

Later as one progresses deeper in meditation, one hears the sounds of the five conchs (shankh) of the 5 pandavas and then finally of Lord Krishna – called the Panchanjaya.  The five sounds (and each conch was very aptly named by Vyasa bhagwana in Gita) produce a different sound at the 5 different chakras.

a) At Muladhar, the sound heard is of that of the Bumble bee.  This produces Savitarka Sampragnata Samadhi.  Here there is some doubt that is my prana really going up? Am I making the progress?  This is a reflection of the mind.

b) Swadhisthana the sound is of the Flute.  This produces Suvichar Sampragnata Samadhi.  Here the doubts are removed and this is a reflection of the Intelligence or Buddhi

c) At manipur the sound is that of the Vina or harp.  This produces Sananda Sampragnata Samadhi. The word Devadatta, the name of the conch means deva meaning joy and datta means giving.  This produces a lot of happiness and there is control over the chitta

d) At anahata the sound is that of the gong bell.  (Paundra). The word Paundra means to disintegrate.  Here the ego begins to disintegrate.  The samadhi that is produced is Sasmita sampragnata Samadhi

e) At the Vishudha chakra, one becomes totally oblivious of the physical universe and is totally within.  The samadhi is called Asampragnata samadhi and the sound is the roar of the ocean

f) At the Agna chakra the sound is a very pleasing co mingling of the all the sounds and is called Panchanjaya (mixture of 5 sounds). 

Finally all these steps are repeated between Agna chakra and the Sahastrar in the ultimate sublime fashion, something which cannot be reproduced in words.

I remain eternally in debt to the great saints, Gurudev, Vishnutirthji Maharaj, and Paramhansa Yogananda maharaja for blessing me with an experience to all of these steps.

However, an occasional experience is NOT satisfactory.  I have to go much further to get these experiences all the time.

In Muktashastra, Yogamruta and in Mayayoga Vigyana more nada are described.  In Muktashastra, Gurudev described the nada as Loud, soft and extremely soft.  The true nadas are extremely soft! 

The other nadas esp. those that are described as the sound of crickets etc are sounds still pertaining to the physical universe and bodily sounds.  Please DO NOT dwell on them, move ahead.  Much more is to be travelled than those sounds.

Since we are on the subject of Nada, I will elaborate a little further.  Nadas can be Vyakta and Avyakta.  Vyakta meaning that which has a comparision and Avyakta – those that cannot be compared with.

Dec 01

Law of Miracles – a borrowed title from Paramhansa Yogananda

Ever since the mental aspect of the subconscious has cleared, the shakti is now working on the vital physical of the subconscient.  Unless you are very familiar with the terminology of Sri Aurobindo, it will sound like mumbo jumbo. 

What is becoming clear is the law or control over Prana.  How it can be achieved.  It does NOT mean that I am any way closer to having that control.  Previously, when I would do Sankalpa, things would happen but I had no understanding how or when or by what process it is accomplished.  Just like there is a science of how the gross universe operates, there is a precise science by which miracles occur, how the subtle or astral universe operates and how the changes occur.  It reminds me now Paramhansa Yogananda described superficially how Jesus resurrected himself.  There are definite steps or process to it.

When one does Sankalpa things and changes occur.  First in order to do Sankalpa one must clear the mind completely and also establish ones eye and full concentration at the Agna chakra.  When one is established at the Agna chakra and has contact with the holy ghost (or OM or Universal Prana or Shakti), then one has to merge as best as possible and wish or do a Sankalpa.  At that time, with the power and grace of the Holy Ghost or Om or Shakti, the mechanism is activated.  This starts acting on the prana of the body and in order to have results without restraints, one has to seperate ones consciousness from the prana and watch the prana act under the guidance of the Universal prana and the results are achieved.

This is how, one has to slowly learn to do a Sankalpa and stop ones heart from beating and how to stop breathing completely and remain in Samadhi for a longer time.  Paramhansa Yogananda told me how to do this about 3  years ago.  It took me this long to understand what he said and God only knows how many more years it will take to master the technique!

Swami Rama was able to stop his heart for a few minutes (and this was observed by Physicians).  Sri Yukteshwar did it also and Yogananda panicked thinking he had passed away.  My gurudev, Sombargiri Maharaja was observed to do that for 3 years at a stretch.

Anyway enough for now.  This may seem all theoritical and not necessary to be be with God, but I humbly beg to difer.  It is very essential to become a Master of all before one is given the privilege of mergin in the infinite.

One last example of the power of this Sankalpa and over the prana is by Kankuben.  She was a very advanced and enlightened disciple of Gurudev.  Once Gurudev had visited her and after a short stay decided to leave.  Kankuben did not want her Guru to leave.  So she went to the bus stop where Gurudev had just climbed up.  Kankuben did “tratak” and no matter how hard the bus driver tried the bus would not start.  Finally Gurudev got off the bus and told Kankuben to release the bus and she broke her trataka and the bus started.

Another example which Gurudev gave me was an example of one of his disciples. He never told me the name of his disciple.  Gurudev in his very typical style said, “I only give this initiation to those who are educated. Let me tell you a story. I once initiated a cowheard (one who rears cows).  He was not educated.  (I believe Gurudev was pointing out that those who are not educated can make tremendously more progress than the so called educated person).  The cowheard came to me (Gurudev), crying.  Gurudev asked him, why are you so upset.  The man replied, Ganapati dada is very upset with me.  Gurudev asked him, why do you say that?  The man replied the, whole idol or murti of Ganapati dada shattered today.  Gurudev explained, to me, this man had a tremendous “trataka”. He did trataka on the idol of Ganesh and when he lifted his eyes and looked around the idol would go up in the air following his gaze!. Finally when the gaze was broken or trataka was broken the idol fell down and was shattered!

Anyway, what happens is that the trataka when perfected, acts through the prana to achieve these results, just like the way Sankalpa does the same thing. 

In order to perfect the technique, one has to understand the mechanism!.  In short the steps are as follows.  Get the mind bereft of desires, tratka on Om or the holy Ghost, watch shakti act on the physical prana and see the results.  However, for this to be achieved, one has to be able to seperate the consciousness completely from the Prana.

Once again, the soul is encased in 5 shells.  Anandamayi kosha, Gyanmayi kosha, manomayi kosha, prana mayi kosha and then the physical body.  Anandamayi kosha is the karana or causal body.  The combination of gyan, manomaya and prana is the subtle body and the gross or anna kosha needs no explanation.

Spiritual progress are in 2 directions.  Horizontal where one has to split the consciousness from all of these 5 koshas or cells and vertical, meaning when the consciousness seperated from these, then the prana has to ascend from the muladhar to the Sahastrar to meet God.

One last final word of caution.  Different saints have described the same phenomenon based on what was more predominant in them.  Traditional Yoga sees and describes things based on the prana and where it travels and how it ascends.

The philosophy of Aurobindo is based on consciousness.  So when he describes things outside the body, he refers to the consciousness. However, the prana could still be in the lower chakras!  Please do not believe that one has reached a high state because of experiences of the consciousness outside the body.  Perfection is reached when prana travels from the lower chakras to the Sahastrar. 

Others describe the same experience based on Shakti.  However, shakti and consciousness are the 2 sides of the coin.  (my experience and that is how Sri Aurobindo describes it).

Nov 29

Name of God and other miscellaneous experiences

Today, we were reciting Sunderkanda.  Now, in the version of Sunderkanda as recited by Ashwin Pathak, in some of the shlokas he follows it by Shree Rama Sharnam mama.  However, he speaks Ramaa instead of the traditional Rama without an aa at the end of m.  The normal and real pronounciation is M with an abrupt end. 

This difference in pronounciation makes a tremendous difference.  When pronounced with the longer aa, the prana or vital energy of the body leaves the body.  However, when I recited it with the shorter a, the abrupt ending of m in Ram, the prana actually stays within the body and if you have a pure anarkarana, the prana actually starts to go within.  Moreover, today as I was reciting it, everytime I said Ram the body actually felt pleasure.  I cannot describe it further except make a simple statement that the cells in the body, the body itself had some soft of pleasure in the recitation.

Before I forget I should add that in the previous experience in which Gurudev narrated what had happened to Mataji at the time of her passing, it was Gurudev in the new body, who told me about it!

As per Aurobindo’s way of describing it,  the cleaning process for the mental portion of the subconscient is complete.  I suspect the next 2 parts that need to be cleaned are the vital and then the physical part of the subconscient.

Yesterday, my daughter Viha was extremely upset and emotional.  I finally laid down on the swing in the living room, did Trataka (yes, I can do it very succesfully now) at the agna chakra and sent in my prana in her body and turned it within.  The change in her is dramatic and immediate.  She has learnt it is very important not to be emotional and today for the first time while we sat together to do her college application etc, she was able to focus without being upset. 

One other incident, we were driving and I suddenly had the bhava of helping the kids by giving them the jagrat mantra of Kashinathdada.  The mantra is very much alive in me and I give both Pujan and Viha the mantra and asked them to recite it after me. My only wish was that in the future, in their life time if they have hardships, the mantra can help them.  All that was needed was for them to recite the mantra once, out aloud after me.  They both missed the opportunity and chose to fight me and question me on it.  I got upset and angry, the rest of the family has no idea why I was upset and what they missed out on.

Similarly, once when we were driving, I saw Ganapati dada in front of me….I immediately asked everyone to be silent and pray and recite the ganesh mantra.  How unfortunate for my mother that she could not even recite the name of Ganapati dada for 30 seconds before she chose to ask questions about friends in Dover.   My mother will never understand many opportunities she has missed out in life because of her constant habit of interrupting when divine blessings are about to fall on her!  I get upset with her but she still cannot modify her behavior.  Incidentally, she has 10,000 more years before she will reach salvation. 

Lastly 2 more disclaimers.  Please do not take everything that I say at face value.  The experiences are real, but there is always a slight possibility of misunderstanding an experience on my part.  I have no desire to start a new religion or a sect or people following anything that I say.  Only accept the things that are written in the scriptures.  My experiences are entirely in accordance with the scriptures though.

Today, after an interval of many years, I was able to do the Kriya Yoga again.  This is the real kriya yoga where when you take the breath in, the breath and the prana disappears completely and you have to inhale again (there is no exhalation). This is called Kriya yoga or keval pranayama or keval kumbhaka.  The scriptures describe that a person can finish of the karama of an entire life with one pranayam.  However to achieve that, this is the only and true way of doing the pranayam where it can be accomplished.

Nov 28

Jesus Christ

Today, I was reminded of a few experiences I had about Jesus.  They were within the last 15 years. 

1)  I was new to USA and had no idea or concept about Good Friday.  I was deep in meditation and I had a very clear and concise vision of Jesus.  Later that day, while driving I heard on the radio, it was Good Friday

2) The love of Jesus is beyond comprehension.  I was deep in Samadhi and saw the first encounter of Jesus with Judas.  What is not known is that even on the day Jesus saw Judas, he knew that Judas would betray him.  However, the love of Jesus was so intense that love became objectified – it was no longer an abstract or emotional feeling but had become a solid reality even in the gross physical world.  I remain immersed in that environment till my Samadhi was broken.  For the following few weeks, any thought of Jesus brought intense tears to my eyes!  I can say with certainty that Jesus was an avatar of Love!

The places where Jesus roams still vibrate with the divine love.  However, it is so amazing that inspite of all the love in those areas, it remains a source of many a violent conflict right now!  One can only imagine how violent a place it would be if Jesus had not roamed those areas and had not left the vibrations of love there.  If only the people living there could turn within and feel that love, all violence in the area would cease. 

Jesus forgave all those who crucified him.  However for Judas, his words were, “It would have been better for mankind if he was never born”  A warning for all those who betray!  It is not a sin that is looked upon lightly by God.  As per Yogananda, Judas finally achieved salvation 800 or so years later.  He was born again in India and was in Orissa near Jagannath Puri.  Even in that birth, Judas continued to have a strong love for money.  It had to be overcome before final salvation came to him.

According to Yogananda, during the missing 15 years (duration?) of his life, Jesus was in India.  There is a picture of him on the walls of Jaggnath Puri.

3) I have in the past mentioned my other encounter about Jesus.  However, I will recapture it here.  I had a fairly long and unbroken experience of his love.  He appeared before me but his feet never touched the ground.  His love and the light on his face and my own unworthiness (more on this later) made it impossible for me to see anything but his feet.  He started telling me a story where he guided a lost girl from danger.  She happened to be a Jewish girl who was lost and in danger.  She prayed ardently to God (her concept of the Jewish God, not Jesus).  Jesus told me how he affectionately guided her and got her out of danger.  I was perplexed a little. 

I asked, “But she did not pray to you!”

His answer, “Did she not pray to God?”  Then he transmitted without words the immense understanding, that no matter how someone prays to God, it makes no difference to him, he will help and answer.  This is very similar to what is said in the Gita, “Oh Arjuna, no matter how someone prays to me, in any form,  I accept his prayer and answer him”

My second question, “Why are there so many sects in Christianity?”

His answer, “Do they not all pray to God?”  Once again, without any exchange of words, he subsequently said, “I permit all faiths to exist because they all lead to me”  Once again, this is very reminiscent of the Gita.

My last question was, “When will I be pure, like you?”  Obviously, the time was not ripe and he disappeared with that question!  The level of purity Jesus had took several births.  As per Yogananda, in his previous birth or life, Jesus had already reached perfection as Elijah! Even in that birth, when it was time to depart, he had taken “akash Samadhi”, his body was seen to rise in the skies in a blaze!

4)I have had other minor visions of Jesus but none as profound as the above. 

This is all I can remember now.  Perhaps, more will come to me in the future.  These are all experiences in the remote past, burried now by many more current experiences.

Nov 26

General thoughts – how to talk with God

It is only the soul that can communicate with God directly  not the thoughts…
Thoughts are disorganized and thoughts have a mental impression or fantasy about how God is or maybe
 and we take our thoughts to be very accurate.
 and that is where all religions and sects in Christianity fight They have a certain logical or intellectual concept of God
 Even a slight experience or vision of God creates an immediate intellectual concept of God and the vision is lost.  We live in our concept and keep saying again and again I am righ because i experienced this but still it is an intellectual concept based on a very slight expereince
 Thus there are fights.
So the first step is to silence the intellect completely and then what remains is the pure spirit or soul.
which can commune with God but as a child we cannot even comprehend how can the soul commune with God without the intellect.
 It is like a fish asking humans how can human beings survive without being in water all the time.

Every soul is unique and has something wonderfully special to offer to God.  Forego all thoughts, forego all intelligence and let the uniqueness of the soul shine forth!

So one should meditate, learn to silence the mind.  Like Vivekananda said, Arise, Awake and Stop not till thy goal is reached! Or in the words of mother, Hasten slowly!  Or in the Bible, the harvest is plenty the laborers are few.  The labor being silencing the mind, impulses, fantasies, intellect etc.

Nov 25

Gurudev

I have always been very curious of what and how Gurudev helped Mataji at the time of her demise.  A book was written by Dahyabhai Patel when Mataji passed away.   Gurudev was disgusted with the book and he threw the book away.

The reason for his disgust was because the book had absolutely no information about passing away.  All it related was things that is seen by ordinary people describing the gross or physical world. 

2 days ago, Gurudev told me about her passing away.  What did Gurudev do?  This is a short recount of what  he did.  In Gurudev’s own words, the first thing he did was gatther her together – meaning her mind and prana was dispersed.  He brought all of her prana and mind together.  Then he had the prana go through the Sushumna and at that time Mataji immediately saw 3 great personages.  One was Ramakrishna Pramhansa, Ganpati dada and another saint, who I (I as in Bhavin) failed to recognize who had worn totally white clothes. 

The greatness of a Gurudev is in this ability. His ability to help anyone at the time of their departure and make the transition very pleasant and divine!

Nov 25

Vision of the Liberated Souls

A few days ago I had a talk with Pramodhbhai.  During the talk, I made a statement, the way Great souls perceive this universe is different from our visions.  I had a talk with Gurudev and he had told me that the light of the supreme never leaves the liberated souls, they constantly perceive the same light within and without.  As I was stating this, I had a question in my mind about the accuracy of the statment.  That night, I had confirmation.  As I slept, throughout that night, with eyes closed, all I could see was the light of the divine.  When I finally opened my eyes, I saw the same light lining the whole room, the bed, the linen etc. This gave me the confirmation about the accuracy of the statement.  Alas, for me the light did not last permanently!

The second discussion I had with Pramodbhai was how perfection in any of the Shad Sampatti (6 wealths as described by Vasishta Maharaj in Yoga Vasishtha Mayaramayana) can lead to perfection.  I related a story which is related in Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda.  There was a Fakir, who walked around naked always immersed in the divine.  He was totally oblivious to the fact that he was roaming into the tents of Muslim women.  The men were obviously very upset about it and they used their swords and severed his upper extremities.  All that the saint did was pick up his limbs and reattach them and move on! 

The moral of the story?  One should not be delighted by the miracle of the story how he was instantly healed but by the fact that a corollary of perfection of the Sampatti (wealth) of being content and remain constantly immersed in the divine all things are possible instantly.  One should keep working on clearing one owns fault to this degree!  

One more small fact. The saint was so immersed in God, that even his genetalia failed to develop – it remained infantile!

Nov 18

Hanuman

The greatest manifestation of Om or the holy Ghost as the Christians call it, is Hanumanji.  There never was and I suspect there will never be a greater manifestation.  He is the supreme ruler who effortlessly does all the work and is still alive.  Amazingly, Rama Bhagwan took samadhi, but his Guru Vasishtha Maharaj, his disciple Hanumanji and Ravanas brother Vibhishana are still alive. My guru from the subtle world, Vishnutirthji Maharaj told me a few weeks ago that his favorite verse in Sundarkanda by Tulsidaji was verse 54.  I have copied the meaning of the verses here.Each of these monkeys is as mighty as Sugriva (the king) and there are tens ofmillions like them; who can dare count them? By the grace of  Rama they areunequalled in strength and reckon the three spheres of creation as of no more accountthan a blade of grass. I have heard it said, Ravana, that the commanders of the variousmonkey-troops alone number eighteen thousand billions. In the whole host, my lord, thereis not a single monkey who would not conquer you in battle. They are all wringing theirhands in excess of passion; but the Lord of the Raghus does not order them (to march)…We shall suck the ocean dry with all its fish and serpents or fill it up with hugemountains. Nay, we shall crush the ten-headed Ravana and reduce him to dust.. Suchwere the words that all the monkeys uttered. Fearless by nature, they roared and bulliedas if they would devour.

This whole Shloka refers to the Hanumanji who is Om.  This is the universal prana which runs the entire universe and Hanumanji is the living embodiment of this universal prana.  The other ten million monkeys in the verse refers to the ten different kinds of Pranas in the body.  The ten pranas have tremendous power and under the supreme order of God (Rama), and the guidance of Hanumanji, they have the ability to destroy ego (Ravana).  The process whereby this happens is sucking the ocean dry (meaning sucking all the prana from the body and thus destroying all vices) and they fill up the mountain (referring to Sushumna).  At this time they have a very loud roar (which refers to one of the anahata nada) heard.  This is the sound of Om.  The word roar is used which is reminescent of the word used in the bible – Gods voice is likened to a thunder or roar.  It is the constant rumbling / roar heard as a symphony of music at the Agna chakra (or when fully everted – the manas chakra). 

This interpretation which I have given will be very difficult for anyone who has not experienced the manas chakra or the everted Agna chakra to understand.  To reiterate and speak in more plain words – at the Agna chakra, when one is fully surrendered with the ability to fully stay there without any reservation one begins to experience several things simultaneously.

1) A constant symphony of music that is very endearing.  At the apex of the symphony is a constant roar the sound of undifferentated Om

2) With more perseverance one begins to realize that this roar or soun is Shakti, the holy ghost, Hanumanji or the universal prana that controls and runs the entire universe.

3) This universal prana or holy Ghost runs solely at the Will of God. 

4) The best sadhaka has no personal wish but to merge his wish into the supreme Will of God. 

This is the beginning of Sankalpa Shakti.  This is the beginning of conquering dreams.  At this stage, one goes beyond certain Mantras or the automatic recital of certan shlokas or mantras. 

 

Nov 16

Potpourri

I tried to hide the fact I had eye glasses from Gurudev.  So, I made sure I did not wear my eye glasses or anything around him.  However, out of the blue a few days after I was with him, he suddenly said, if you do Tratak properly, you wont need eye glasses.  This was 25 years ago.  I still wear glasses and my number has kept increasing. 

This morning I was on my computer and suddenly, for no reason without eye glasses, my vision suddenly corrected.  It was about a minute but it corrected perfectly.  I tried to get back to the stage of  not needing eye glasses later but I could not do so.  What I did understand was that if only I could keep my eyes  partly focused within, then I would not need eye glasses.  Even as I am typing this, I can achieve this success partly. 

Samta is more and more stable. Situations, people which would be upsetting to me in the past are now neutral. I am more like a silent spectator not caring nor intervening but fully capable of changing it.  Reaching the stage of “gita” is now routine and easy.  This is the stage where “sankalpa” shakti truly develops.  This stage, when one wills it happens because there is no reaction from the mind or the intellect or even from the body. 

Again, I can understand how, one slowly learns to know the future.  The sequence per Gurudev in Muktashastra is as follows. First one knows the future.  First of oneself, then of the family, then of the friends and town and finally of the nation and world.  The reason for this sequence is that when one enters the Sushumna, our first encounter is the hidden emotions or chitta born reactions which we learn to neutralize and watch and as a result there of the future is revealed. 

Finally, the body is composed of 9 openings through which the soul departs.  2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, mouth, anus and urethra.  Within the body there are 2 more openings one is called the tenth door and then above the Agna chakra is the elevent door which leads us to freedom.

Nov 09

The mind (continued)

We ended the previous blog in a rather gloomy and dismal way.  After all, who likes an existence where there is nothing to look forward to.  A situation where the mind wants nothing and has nothing to look forward to is quite depressing!

This is where the problem lies.  The soul is not the mind.  Any desire of the mind masks the soul.  Hence, when the mind is bereft of desire, can lie vacant and without any of the dualities, then and only then is our existence revealed.  Our existence as the soul, as the pure spirit. This pure spirit is ever joyful, needs nothing from the material existence and has a powerful power called the “Will” or “Sankalp”  Anything the soul wants, is materialized. But the changes the soul can make are restricted to its micro environment, not to the macro environment – the universe.  The power to affect changes in the universe lies only with God.

The previous chapter on the mind was the painful part of spirituality. The mind will resent and revolt against a situation bereft of desires.  The progress in terms of the kundalini here is, the dormant kundalini ascends upto the manipur chakra.  The progress from anahata chakra is the sunlit path (as stated by Sri Aurobindo and by Ramkrishna Paramhansa).   Moreover, the anahata chakra is the second stopping site for the sadhaka.  But this part of the ascent from anahata onwards is more of surrender.  Since the surrender is close to perfection, the sadhaka has no fear or worries.  God or shakti takes care of everything!  Isnt that a wonderful existence, where the sadhaka has joy / bliss and no worries?

It should be noted that it is impossible for anyone to stay in that state for long.  Everyone falls down while they live in the gross material world but, for someone who has reached such an exalted state, at the time of death, they valiantly go to the otherside never to come back to this existence!

Nov 06

The mind

There is a fundamental flaw and misguided concept in the mind. It is the erronous concept that anything in the material world will give pleasure or content. There is nothing in this gross world that gives pleasure.

If that is the case then why do we enjoy sex food intellectual discussions etc?  This is because of the wrong in born programming of the mind. The mind has already determined and said, this is what will make me happy and whatever that determination is, when it occurs, we are happy.  An alcoholic has already determined in his mind that drinking will make him happy and he keeps drinking. A vegetarian has already determined in his mind that eating meat is bad and if he accidentally eats it, he becomes unhappy.  

Thus the root cause of all this is the wrong programming in the mind about the pleasures in the material world will give me pleasure.  An advanced soul does not need to convince the mind with intellect that the pleasures of life are not worth it.  He automatically has it pre programmed that all pleasures in this life are worthless and he automatically moves towards God.  Let me emphasize, once again, ALL PLEASURES.  This includes the pleasure of spiritual discussions, intellectual thoughts (fantasies in reality), or the pleasure of even thinking one is spiritual.

For such an advanced soul, as per Swami Vivekananda, liberation is certain provided he finds a true guru.  This person already has the key to liberation – true Vairagya and all he needs is a little kindle from a true Guru and he will surely be free.

Nov 06

Bhagvada Gita

I have had a series of spectacular experiences some of which I have already forgotten.   However, some of the experiences I remember about the Gita are as follows

1) I was very fortunate to have the darshana of Krishna Bhagwana.  He started off with many many shlokas all praising his Guru.  He praised his Guru when he was Rama i.e. Vasishta Maharaj and his own Guru.  The shlokas were in sanskrita but as is typical in the Sukshma world, language is no barrier and miraculously I could understand all that was said. At the end of the shlokas, Krishna bhagwana told me these are the missing shlokas in the Bhagwada Gita.  The point being that in the entire Gita, there are no shlokas that praise the importance of a Guru.  The truth of the matter is the supreme cannot be reached without the grace of a Guru. 

When I told Dineshuncle about this, he praised our Gurudev very highly.  My gurudev only spent a few minutes with his Gurudev and reached the highest.  (I will explain this in more detail some other time).

2) A few days later, I had the extreme pleasure of having the darshana of Vishnutirthji Maharaja.  All advanced disciples have 2 Gurus. One guru for the gross physical world or sthula world and another Guru for the Sukshma world or astral world or subtle world.  At times the Guru maybe the same or other times it maybe a different Guru.  In my case, my Gurudev for the gross physical world is Sombargiri Maharaj and for the subtle world it is Vishnutirthji Maharaja.  For Paramhansa Yogananda, his gross physical world teacher was Yukteshwara maharaja and for the subtle world it was Lahiri Mahashaya.

Bade Guruji (Vishnutirthji Maharaja) was all joy, with a tremendous smile on his face and seated.  He did not have a shirt on but had a dhoti.  His face was beaming with the light of God.  His joy was very infectious.  This experience occured to me 3 days before Raksha bandhana in 2009.  Before I could say anything, he smiled and said, he will take me to the highest.  Even before the thoughts had fully formulated in my mind, he continued, yes, of course, I promise.  I promise to be bound till you reach the highest. (the true meaning of Raksha Bandhana).  His statement gave me great joy and pleasure.  The next question that passed my mind is, who is my true Guru.  Once again, he answered with a big smile on his face.  If your goal is to be somewhere at 7 am, can you tell the difference if your taken a certain distance by one person and the remaining distance by someone else? The goal is more important than anything else.

Lastly he asked me, do you know the Gita for a abhyasi?  I said no.  He said, the Gita for an abhyasi is Devatma Shakti the only book he wrote in English.  Then he told me to give this message to Pramodhbhai Jaiswal.  I immediately travelled astrally and gave the message to him. However, I intuitively sensed the message was not translated to the gross physical world.  I called him personally a few days later and conveyed the message.  I was surprised to hear from him that he felt he was stuck for the last 2 weeks and was looking for a book to help answer his question “there is tremendous joy in his meditation but what next?”.   At present, I am not at liberty to discuss a few more things on the matter.

3) In the Gita, there are many shlokas which praise the importance of Gita.  One of the shlokas, Lord Krishna says Oh Arjuna Gita is my divine abode!  Gita goes by many names, Gita, Ganga, Gayatri, Sita, Satya, Saraswati, Ardhmatra, Chidananda, Bhavagni, Bhayanashini, etc.  In the end Lord Krishna says, anyone who does the Gita Patha (studies the Gita) is liberated.

Gurudev always said this, but till I had the experience I could understand but not appreciate it.  In deep meditation, when one goes very deep, so deep that one is far beyond the sounds of the gross world, there are very subtle sounds of the atoms, that are constantly played within.  This divine music, is heard when one has full attention on the Agna Chakra.  These sounds, is the symphony of sounds, very melodious.  These sounds are the true Gita.  Listening to these sounds is the true study of Gita (Gita patha).  These sounds go by many names including Gita, Ganga, gayatri, etc. 

One more thing, one should not confuse the sounds of the initial meditation with the divine symphony which I am alluding to.  Nada or music is heard at 3 different levels.  1.  The sounds of the gross body.  2.  The sounds which occur from an intermediary stage which is heard easily but does not give any divine power and after a while becomes painful or not fun to hear.  3.  The divine sounds that come from the deepest atomic level.  These are the true sounds and listening to these sounds or nada gives us various Siddhis.  The true Gita is the sound at this level.

The word Gita itself means song.  The word Bhagvada means God so Bhagvada Gita means the divine song of God.  There is no other truer Gita than listening to the celestial music.  I am using words which have been used by Paramhansa Yogananda, one of my favorite spiritual guides.

Nov 05

Siddha Yoga April 5, 2009

I am getting more and more secure in going to the Sukshma world quickly. I saw today Shakti and usually see Gurudev regularly.

One thing, I am beginning to understand the way to becoming a Siddha. Siddha, when I use that term, it does not refer to merely having powers but a state of perfection. This is described in Mahayoga Vigyana and also by Vishnu Tirthji in Antarvithi (in the final chapter). This is the state where one is able to withdraw all body life forces from the body and pull it within. A person who has achieved this state is the only person who can take us to liberation.

This is what is to be done. It is quite simple. All you have to do is will it. When you will to go within, the prana automatically slows down, and is withdrawn from the body and starts going within! How amazingly simple ! Yet what happens is when we will it, several parts of our intellect, heart and even body make their own demands and their own vibrations prevents the divine will from taking us within. This is described very well by Sanatkumara when he started to teach the method of liberation to Narada muni. Narada was not happy by just chanting the name of God. He approached Sanatkumara and the gist of what he taught is as above.

The key process is – will it, the prana slows down and we go within. Every so often, I have noticed that as prana passes through Swadhisthana, the male organ enlarges. This occured to Muktananda but I am not sure what the significance is. I will write more when I am clear about it. Reading about his experience and significance can help but I prefer to learn the real interpretation from God.

All I can say, is this is the real beginning of Yoga. Until then, it is only preparation. Traditional yoga talks about Shakti Uthana or awakening of the Shakti. This step can only occur through the grace of a Guru and even though the grace of a Guru maybe there, until there is total surrender of the mind, intellect and body, this will not happen. Aurobindos entire yoga talks about cosmic shakti that is awake and descends in the body from the top. This is true but that shakti teaches us total surrender, prepares us for the awakening of the Shakti. For the moment that is ripe and perfected – the surrender, the results are instant and true Yoga or the ability to go within, the Siddha Yoga or you may call it Kriya yoga (kriya because it cuts off all prana from the body and goes within) begins.

I heard of another saint called Swami Ramananda. He passed away on April 15, 1952. He has a book called “As I understand”. I read the book and based on his words, he was Jeevanmukta.

One more thing, Gurudev told me that the awakened Shakti of Maa Aanandmayi was partial. She had her shakti awakaned by performing Seva to her Grandfather – who was a Siddha but no one knew about it! He also said about Aurobindo “Mane khabar che ke tya ketlo prakash aave che” meaning I know how much light he sees! Gurudev stayed within for months together. His status and enlightenment is beyond comprehension. However, he always acted so ordinary he deceived everyone! God bless us all