Author: Mandala

March 8, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om
Gurave namah.
Parama-gurave namah.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namah.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namah.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namah.
Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.

Om śham.

Today is the last session on this topic. Tomorrow we’ll be talking about your next five years plan.

Allow me to welcome my special sister, Professor Bettina [Bäumer], Sharada. I wish we had reserved a space here for her to speak. You do not know how honored I feel by her presence. You should be sitting over here. If you just saw a catalogue of her books, that would run into ten pages – big, massive volumes that both the academicians and the sadhakas read, especially on Kashmir Shaivism. Born in Austria, she spends her time teaching at her institute in Varanasi, and then she has a secret hideout and hour and a half’s drive from here up in the mountains, and when you go there, she’s in total silence. And I would like to hear her say something about the practice of silence and solitude. Let us see if she can do that, maybe after the music performance tonight. Maybe for ten or fifteen minutes? People need to benefit from you. Yes? I’m going to say yes on your behalf; I don’t care; I’m your brother. (Laughter)

So, I will try to cover as much as I can on the rest that remains to be said on this topic of “Stations of Progress in Spirituality and in Meditation.” We have covered a lot of ground, but since the time is short here now, I will have to have to be very brief and just give you notes. And when the written form comes out, it will be much more complete. You can keep a lookout for that.

Some of the experiences that I have spoken about have been practices based on those experiences. For example, I spoke of a feeling of expansion of space. Now, please understand that method and inner awakening are interdependent. All the methods have been designed from the internal experiences of the yogis. And for those who are not at that level, they start with the method. The yogi experiences it directly.

For example, the Om Kriya practice that Swami Ma Radha teaches, that she learned from the master and that involves this expansion of space, teaches you how to expand that space and go into the infinite space. For the time being you will do it as a method; later it will become your awareness.

The same applies to the questions relating to the opening of the chakras; what the yogis experienced, from that they created the methods. I have explained this in my book Philosophy of Hatha Yoga.

For us, we start with the methods, but let us hope, let us pray, let us aspire, let us be ambitious – let me be very plain and frank – let us be sadhakas. To reach a point where you don’t need a method, and you know where the switches are to trigger that state of consciousness, and you just turn on those switches and you are at that level – whichever level you want to be at, from where you want to go further inside, or from where you want to teach. Only then are you a teacher – not because you are getting a teaching certificate.

As your meditation progresses, the bodily discomforts will begin to be switched off. They will become faint, and then fainter, and then you will not be aware of them. You will not be aware of the sounds around you, or the sounds that seemingly are coming, very faintly, from a great distance.

You will learn the art of the Naqshbandi school of Sufis called khalwat dar anjuman, “solitude in a crowd.” There are people who sometimes tell me, “I can’t meditate in a group.” Where is the group? I don’t see a group. This is the place; there is one place, the place that your body is occupying in the meditation hall. Where is the group? I don’t know what group you are talking about. So, khalwat dar anjuman, the Sufi doctrine – I love it: “solitude in a crowd.” So you will sit in the middle of a rock band playing, and if you choose to turn on your meditation, you will turn your meditation.

First you will begin to have the faintness and disappearance of physical pains during meditation. Later, as you develop further, your pains will no longer bother you. The pain will still be there, the symptoms will still be there, but you will not respond to them because you will have learned the art of what I have been saying for the past forty years: “Do not make body conditions into mind conditions.” Do you know that sūtra? Every doctor needs to teach that to the patients. And then you will learn the art of not making body conditions into the mind conditions, so the physical conditions will no longer trigger the pain centers of the brain to that extent.

My master had a tumor two-thirds of size of a tennis ball taken out of his hip without any anesthesia. One of the mantra initiators here has gone through the sinus surgery of a deviated septum without any anesthesia; she just took my relaxation cassette with her and listened to it during the surgery.

Wait for the book that Dr. Dixit is editing based on the seminar we had four years ago on Meditation for Pain Management. And Dr. Tacson Fernandez is adding his chapter to that book. Dr. Tacson is a pain management expert.

As you progress in your meditation, you will have less need of frequent food intake. You will not eat because of craving; you will eat for the need. The Ayurvedic texts say, “Take your food as medicine.” You take the right amount of food, like the right dosage of medicine, the right nutrients and so on. So the need for eating, eating, eating will disappear. And remember that the lesser of the frequency of any pleasure the greater the intensity of the pleasure – if indulged in with patience and selfless love.

With this, your need for sleep will also become less. Actually you will learn the art of sleeping. You will learn the art of using your sleep by simultaneously sleeping with meditation going on. You will learn the art of meditation going on during sleep. So with less sleep and more meditation you will have a greater awakening of energies. It’s not going to happen tonight or tomorrow night. Be a sādhaka. Practice.

There will come in you positive urges, like the urge to give. You will not feel the resistance to giving that you often feel. You will want to give. You will stand before a display window of a store with beautiful objects, and when you look at the beautiful objects, your first reaction will be: “Now to whom can I give this?” Not “How can I get it for myself?” You will think: “That is a beautiful object. To whom can I give this?” These urges will arise in you naturally.

When I speak of giving, by the way, I am not only speaking of objects, but also the giving of love. There will remain in you the urge to give selfless love. When you give selfless love, you are not hurt when the love is not returned and love is betrayed. “I gave him so much attention and I received no thanks.” That’s not love. Did you sign a contract with him that if you give attention to him five times a day, then he will thank you ten times a day? What kind of loving is that? There is an urge for giving. There is an urge for loving. And you love for that sacred urge in you. Many people love in anticipation of being loved, but as I said to you before: one whose heart center has opened or is opening to a certain degree becomes emotionally independent and no longer has emotional dependence on others, has no need of receiving; his satisfaction is in giving.  And people will know that yours is a selfless love. That love is universal; it is for all living beings in the whole universe. You know what the vow of a Bodhisattva is:

“I shall not fear, I shall not step back, I shall not retract, not until all living beings from a blade of grass to the cosmic Brahma have been liberated, not until then shall I enter nirvana.”

That is the vow of a Bodhisattva. There is downstairs in the hallway next to the Meditation Hall a number of statues. One of the statues is of Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, whose vow it was to stay in hell until all living beings stopped coming to hell. That is called loving. I can tell you quite a few stories on that theme.

So, along with that comes the natural inclination to ahimsa. Here up I will take up a small point of belief. I was walking with one of our initiates in Taiwan. In the Chinese culture they have certain vegetarian days for the practicing Buddhist, especially the full-moon days. And we were just talking about vegetarianism, and I mentioned in passing that people in the West do not believe that living beings other than humans have souls, and she said, “That’s strange.” And that thought is strange to three billion people on this earth.

People in the West have difficulty accepting that all living beings have souls, but as your meditation grows, your realization of this universal soul and its sparks in the bodies of all living beings will become real to you, and, therefore, ahimsa will come, non-violence towards all living beings. Sarvathā sarvadā sarva-bhutānām an-abhidrohoḥahiṁsā. The definition of ahimsa: “in all possible manners, at all times, towards all beings.” Absence of the inclination to cause any hurt or pain is called ahimsa. So as your meditation grows – even if you have not read the arguments on vegetarianism – and you don’t need to read the arguments about the health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle or how a vegetarian lifestyle will save the grain situation of this planet earth – not because of those arguments, but because of a natural inclination to ahimsa you will gradually become a vegetarian if you are not a vegetarian. You will. I’m not saying that you should. I’m not saying that you must become a vegetarian; but if you are making meditational progress you can’t help it; the inclination will change. You will feel the effects of meat and such things on your mind, and you will not want those effects. These things will happen to you naturally as part of your growth.

There are other benefits to the practice of meditation – your memory improves, for example – but you don’t do meditation for that purpose. People write me letters and say, “I want to learn your art of how to learn languages through yoga-nidra.” I say to them, “I don’t teach that.” I did not learn yoga-nidra so that I could learn Italian. I could open a very nice school in New York City and become a millionaire by teaching this “art,” but being a stupid idiot, it never occurred to me except as a joke. Now imagine if I could have people just lie down there and learn languages; everybody would want to come. How much should I charge for one famous course? What are people making of yoga and meditation. My God, what are you people doing? Is that why Patañjali wrote? Is that why the rshis of the Himalayas sat in their forest academies? Is that why the yogis of the Himalayas have sat in their caves for decades and lifetimes at a time? Is that why the Buddha sat under the bodhi tree for forty-nine days and forty-nine nights without any movement, in total stillness – so that his followers could open schools in New York and become rich? So please change your attitudes to yoga and meditation and spread this word in the yoga circles.

As you progress, your inclination to silence will increase. You will want to do silence. You see, all these stations of spiritual progress that I have talked about, they happen to you effortlessly if you practice meditation seriously. But your meditation will remain full of disturbances if you do not practice all these other things in your daily life. If you practice all these things in your daily life, your meditation will become easier, and your meditation will feed back into your daily life. Okay?

So do some contemplation. Take the recordings of these lectures, and wait for the book whenever it comes out, and listen to each point and see how you can absorb. Don’t say, “Oh my God, it’s so much! There are so many things to do. I give up.” It’s like somebody trying to learn how to drive a car: “What? I have to remember about the clutch? I have to learn about the brake? I have to remember to do the steering? I have to remember to look outside, back and front? I have to remember about the accelerator? I have to remember about the turn signals I give? There are too many things to remember.” You will never learn to drive a car if you think like this. Imagine how many things a pilot has to learn to fly you safely in an airplane. You do them all slowly, slowly, slowly, and they become integrated, and they become part of your natural habits, your natural inclination. You don’t think twice about all the techniques about driving a car. You had to learn all the techniques, but now they have become assimilated.

So these things will become assimilated into your life and there will be a natural tendency to silence. You will want to be silent. And you will first put aside half a day of silence a week during which there are no phone calls, no TV. You have heard of this wonderful Nyepi Day in Bali island. Once a year the whole island goes silent. No cars on the road. No bicycles. No pedestrians. The Ngurah Rai International Airport is closed from 6:00 am to 6:00 am the next day. No TV, preferably no lights, possibly no cooking, just simple food, with just a day of 24 hours of silence and contemplation. How would it be if all the world’s nation’s leaders gathered sometime, somewhere, like in Washington D.C. or Moscow, or Beijing or Dehli and had a 24-hour silence of this kind together? Do you think it would have an effect? Then they could negotiate after that.

So what I am saying is, let these become your natural inclinations. As you write your spiritual journals, you can choose, as you like: “I’ll work on these things or I’ll work on these four things for the next year. And that will be my New Year’s resolution.” Now these new habits have another habit: they never come alone; they bring along other habits. So if you pick up one or two or three of these new habits, all the associated habits will say, “Hey, you cannot go alone; I’m coming with you.” So other habits will change along with the first ones you have chosen.

When you start practicing ahimsa, for example, you will also want to experiment with food that is more sattvic, and speech that is more sattvic. With that will come relationships that are more sattvic.

I have told you this before, but long ago, maybe eight years back, in a silence retreat at The Meditation Center in Minneapolis, I gave a very simple practice. I said, “Go buy yourself a diary, and every day write one pleasant thing that happened.” You saw one beautiful bird; okay, write about that. Or someone spoke to you very gently and lovingly; write that down. Our Vice-president emeritus, David Hume, came to this ashram some years after I suggested that. And I was driving to Delhi and he was returning by way of Delhi and we were sitting in a coffee shop at Hyatt Regency having coffee or tea or whatever, and he said, “Swamiji, I have a gift for you.” “Oh my God,” I thought, “he is always giving me gifts; what gift does he have this time?” So he had these three beautifully-bound volumes for his three years of each day writing of a beautiful happening. I treasure it. I still have those volumes. Nobody has ever given me that kind of gift. Now, you can imagine 365 times 3, whatever it is, a thousand or so beautiful thoughts, how they would affect your communication, how they would affect your other emotions. Having written that beautiful thought, when you go lie down to sleep, what will be the mood you will have, and what kind of dreams will you have?

Also, as you make spiritual progress the quality of your dreams changes, but I have said enough. I have given you quite a bit to work on, to aspire for, to be ambitious about. When I open my mouth again on February 14th, 2018, after five years of silence, I will give some more teaching for one year. Maybe one year, maybe less, maybe more, I don’t know. In the meantime, the teaching will come in other forms. Alright.

And that one habit of what? The forehead. Can’t you do one thing for me? I know you love me and you love my master. Can’t you do one small thing; just keep your forehead relaxed? And the other one: every two or three hours, take two or three minutes of breath awareness, wherever you are – as you are here now in this hall — alone in absolute solitude. You are the only one in the hall. There is no one else sitting where you are sitting, so you are in absolute solitude.

Relax your forehead. Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils . . . breathing, slowly, gently, smoothly with no break between the breaths… with your mantra exhaling and inhaling . . . . Maintain the flow…. Without breaking the flow, gently open your eyes. God Bless You all.

This little book, Sadhana in Applied Spirituality, if you have not had time to read it, read the last two chapters before tomorrow. God bless you.

Editor’s note

The Signs of Progress in Spirituality and in Meditation: During the 2013 Sangha Gathering, Ahymsin Publishers recorded Swami Veda’s lectures to help those on a spiritual path recognize the signs of progress. He also gave cautions and ‘pitfalls’ to watch out as one navigates their practice. This 9 part series is now available and is invaluable for all seekers wishing to enjoy the guidance of Swami Veda Bharati over the next years as he shifts deeper and deeper into silence. Contact AHYMSIN Publishers at ahymsinpublishers@gmail.com

March 7, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om
Gurave namah.
Parama-gurave namah.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namah.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namah.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namaḥ.
Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.

Om śham.

To continue on the topic – today I have to speak softly. Can you hear me in the back? Can you hear me? Cannot? Cannot or can? Can. You have to forgive me; the body is old and tired.

We were talking yesterday about the symptoms of the openings of the chakras. Now please remember that what I’m giving is not exhaustive. It is only indicative – a few things out of many. And those things many of you will discover on your own someday if you’re ambitious, if you have the desire, if you have the dedication to sādhana. People want lectures and intellectual entertainment, and then they go back home – and no sādhana. But it is only through sādhana that you will verify whether what I am saying is true or whether it’s all my concoction. In some people’s minds they might say, “That’s too fantastic. Well, this can’t be. I think Swamiji exaggerates,” and so on. Because one who has never seen the ocean cannot imagine what the ocean is like.

We have an idiom in Sanskrit: kūpa māṇḍūka: “the frog in the well.”  The frog in the well was visited by a frog from the ocean. “Where are you from?” “I’m from the ocean. How do you manage to live in such a narrow, small space?”  The frog in the well said, “What do you mean? Do you think you are from some high and mighty place? What is this place like?” He said, “This water here in the well is nothing compared to where I live.” “Oh, is that place bigger than this well?” So the frog in the well makes a jump and says, “Is it that big?” “Oh, no, no, you won’t understand.” So the first frog takes three jumps across the well and says, “Well, it must be about that big.” “No, I wish I could show it to you.” The frog in the well says “You are a liar; such a place can’t exist.”

God also can’t exist. Right? The Ātman, the Self cannot exist. The Universal Mind cannot exist. It’s just too fantastic.

Visit the ocean. Start the journey. Do some sādhana. And those who have a glimpse are the blessed ones, and they do not know, they do not know how blessed they are – because grace has touched them. And then they wonder what to do with this grace: “So, what do I do next, Swamiji?”  And I say, Come on. Don’t do anything. This has not come to you by your doing. What level of consciousness you arrive at naturally. Sahaja – remember that word. Just become absorbed in experiencing it. That is your practice.

I’ve been asked a question from a serious sādhaka. I like to answer questions from serious sādhakas. She says: “I do this breathing, the 21,600 breaths,” – the practice we have taught at one time – “but I cannot quite locate where the svādhisthāna chakra is. What is the location of the svādhisthāna chakra, the second chakra?”  First let me give a general answer. In a magnet, is the magnetism in front or is it in the back? People ask, “Are the chakras in the front in these organs – navel and heart and so on – or are they in the spine?”  A chakra is a force-field; it has no front or back. Remember that. It’s a force-field. So do not look for it whether in the front or in the back. I’ve explained that in my book on kundalini [Kundalini – Stilled or Stirred]. If you got a copy, you can read it. It answers many such questions.

So when we talk of the location, where is that force-field centered? Mūlādhāra chakra, for example is located just where the spinal bone ends, just where the spinal bone ends, or on the other hand, two digits width inside the rectum. Two digits farther up from there is the svādhisthāna chakra. Then the maṇipūra chakra and so on are easily recognized because of the well-known organs that are in front. I will not repeat what I have already written in the in the book on kundalini; it would be a waste of time. Please read it. But if you don’t manage to locate the exact spot of the chakra, don’t worry about it. Ordinarily, in our tradition, we do not give concentrations on mūlādhāra chakra, on svādhisthāna chakra except as part of an upward flow of energies, and there are several techniques that are taught in that regard.

The other question answered is that the symptoms of the chakra opening and so on, do they happen in sequence or do they happen spontaneously anywhere? They begin to happen spontaneously – anywhere, depending how much of the psycho-neuro-physiological mechanisms you have purified in a given area. These centers they are the force-fields; they are the force-fields that run your psycho-neuro-physiological faculties and functions. How much you have purified these faculties – on that depends where you feel the spontaneous pulsation, the spontaneous vibration or pressure or whatever. Just because you have begun to feel the little pulsation or you have begun to feel a little pressure, a little flow, that doesn’t mean you have become a great rishi now.

I told you an easy way to become a meditation master, right? Go back home and find a good PR company and they’ll make you a meditation master; you don’t need to go to the caves of the Himalayas anymore. Up to now, I don’t write the word “yogi” behind my name and I don’t allow it. In this entire ashram, you will not see my picture; I don’t allow it. And even to say this could be a display of vanity so I don’t say it often – just to teach you here. Nowadays I get these brochures from this yogi-raj and that yoga-rishi. Oh God, what happened to Patañjali and Vyāsa? What happened to Svātmārāma? Where are they in this big galaxy of yogi-rajas and yoga-rishis nowadays? If you are truly making spiritual progress, humility will happen. We have been talking about traps. Don’t get trapped.

One more question has been sent by a very serious, fairly advanced teacher. She says, “When I guide the manasa-puja, the internal worship in the heart center, many students start crying.”  Now this phenomenon of crying and laughing is very familiar to me. People cry when they come in the presence of anyone loving – because people hold so much pain. Everybody holds so much pain. And there is not enough trust, where they share that pain. And when they come to someone they trust, they overflow. I keep a box of tissues by my side. That is my professional equipment because I know that half the people that come will cry because they get love. I don’t teach; I only love – and they start crying. Understand it. People carry so much pain.

And yet they don’t want to renounce the world. They still keep hoping to find some honey in this pot of bitter juice. When you find it, let me know. Then you can say, “I am satisfied.” I haven’t met anybody except my master [who could say that].

So because we carry so much suppressed emotion, I have seen this happen: sometimes in rare cases even during initiation people cry – especially the people of India; they are very emotional people. Similarly, during guided meditations, sometimes people laugh or cry because the energy that is going on in the crying, or in involuntary laughter, has not been absorbed, has not been assimilated.

Emotional purification has not occurred. So work on emotional purification – number one. Work on emotional purification, absorbing the energy through practices like nādī shodhana, alternate nostril breathing, and through practices like heart-centered meditation. Over a period of time that energy that goes into meaningless crying and laughter will go into bhakti, will go into expressions of divine love. I have given lectures on bhakti yoga. You can inquire about the recordings, and listen to them so you will understand what bhakti is. So, through these stratagems you will learn to absorb that energy and then learn to channel it so that the same energy that you are throwing outward can then be channeled into the spiritual streams and become an instrument of your inner awakening and give you the capacity to open your heart center so that there develops in you that selfless love and universal love – selfless and universal. Whoever comes in your presence feels loved for no reason what so ever. That is the opening of the heart chakra. So that is the answer to involuntary laughing and crying.

Do not get trapped into thinking of these as necessary stations. You may bypass them simply by absorbing the energy and channeling it into the spiritual streams through observation and concentration. There are some here who understand what I am talking about, those who have done some sādhana. There are many who have not done the sādhana and who have not done the studies. They need to do the study and they need to do the sādhana.

Then there is the trap of intensification of concentration into negative emotions. It happens very often. While on one hand, there may be someone who is working on self-purification and self-pacification calms down and becomes incapable of anger – incapable. There are others, however, who have not done any work on self-purification, emotional purification, chitta prasādhana, and I have seen cases where they have become angrier. And then they say, “Oh, this meditation is making me angry.” They were angry before. They have now channeled the energy of concentration into that anger.

Learn to practice self-pacification. Learn to do the emotional purification, about which we have spoken for decades and decades. Nobody teaches that. And some of the practical aspects of that are in the book that has been given to you as a gift: Sadhana in Applied Spirituality. There are other recordings and writings about that, too.

People can develop the power to place a curse on somebody. I know of cases where the some swamis have done long sādhana and somebody forgot to touch their feet and they put a curse on them. They have the power to curse, but why misuse that power? Use the power to bless. These are traps on the spiritual path, okay?

Similarly, for a time, through the practice of meditation, there may become an intensification of physical passion. I spoke of one becoming naturally celibate, but one may also feel an intensification of spiritual passion. That intensification is not for indulging in; that intensification is simply the force-field becoming more active. Take that force and channel it upwards. That is called becoming an ūrdhva-retas: one who flows upwards. So, become an upward-flowing one.

Do you know what I am doing in this course? I’m saving myself from e-mails so that I can practice some silence, and I’ll bet that three months from now someone will ask me a question that I have already answered in this course – and they are present here.

Uta tvaḥ paśyan na dadarśa vācaṁ uta tvaḥ śṛṇvan na śṛṇotyenām. Even the rishis in the Rig Veda were complaining that there are some who seeing, do not see and hearing, do not hear. And even Jesus got frustrated with people: “Those who have ears let them hear.” So, hear, okay? And don’t send me another e-mail if the question has already been answered somewhere by Swami Rama or by this self. Okay. Sixty-six years of non-stop teaching, lecturing, traveling, teaching, lecturing – Ah, come on, give me a break, please? Do.

So one question that is sent to me with some frequency is this: “At a certain point in my meditation, when I arrive at a certain level of stillness, I become afraid.”  The fear in meditation is quite common and is a great block. The Tibetans, in their system, they have all these demonic figures, and the churches in the Christian world you have these gargoyles on the outside. Okay. I visited a cathedral in Vienna way back about twenty-five or thirty years ago, and the stairs going up to the pulpit, on the banister, were the figures of all these animals. And the tour guide explained that as the priest is going up he should leave all these animal things behind. So, as you move up, the animal figures vanish. So it might happen that all kinds of fearful demons appear in your dreams, and the demon of fear appears in your meditation – but, as some of you know, I used to be a scuba diver; I’ve dived for many, many, many years. A scuba diver has this fear. I mean if you are at fifty feet there is no difference between of being at 50 feet and of being at 150 feet. But you check you altimeter and if you are at 50 feet, you are scared to go down further, just as you were scared, to first jump in. But you go down to 150 feet and there is no problem. You are just as comfortable there as you were at 50 feet or as you were at 25 feet. Okay?

My formula in life and in meditation is this: “What you are afraid of, go do it.”  Go see: “What is it that I am afraid of?”  “I’m scared of a dark room. Let me go in to see what is there to really scare me? Is there some lion, or is there a snake, or is there a demon, or is there somebody hiding there? What is in the dark room? Let me go look.”  And when you go toward that, the fear runs away – vanishes.

One is always afraid of the unfamiliar. The next step of experience in meditation is unfamiliar.   So you have this sense of “Ummm, shall I go?”  Hesitating. “No, I better come out. Suppose I go in and never manage to come out?”  Don’t worry; you will come back out. You will come back because of your karma, your saṁskāras of the world – what in the Yoga-sutras we call your vyutthāna saṁskāras. I have written about it in my work on the Yoga-sutras. There are two kinds of samskāras: vyutthāna samskāras and samādhi samskāras. Samādhi samskāras are those samskāras that your meditation samskaras builds up and builds up and builds up and impels you towards that path. Vyutthāna samskāras, your karmic forces, your worldly samskaras, your attraction in the world, they force you out of meditation. They make you get up. The word vyutthāna means “getting up,” which prevents you from settling down. So you have enough vyutthāna samskāras, and they will pull you out. Don’t worry; you’re not going to get into some beautiful heaven of infinity from which you will never return. I wish you could get into that beautiful heaven of eternity. When my master initiated me – I cannot give you full description of that – for three days and three nights – of whatever world. During that time, every now and then, especially on the first day, he kept calling me: “Usharbudh, open your eyes.”  I forced my eyes open. And then he let me go in again. And I asked him, “Why did you keep pulling me out of that heaven?”  And he said, “If I don’t, you will permanently stay there; I have work for you, and my work will not get done.” Well, big deal! You got me working day and night. Is that fair? (Laughing)  Sometimes I quarrel with my gurus. They don’t mind. So, there is nothing to this fear except your own samskāras, your hesitation toward the unfamiliar. Just go to it. Go to the next step. Go to the next depth. Just dive in, and see what is there to fear. Be curious about it: “Was there really something to fear?”  As you will cross that boundary, the next level of stillness will come to you. If you cross the boundary of that hesitation, of that fear, the next step of stillness and energy will come to you. And over a period of time, over a period of time, another awakening will happen.

I gave you a phrase from the commentary on the Shiva Sutras. What was the phrase? Smera, smera, stimita. Smiling, smiling, stilled. As you go on this journey, these amazing vistas open for you and you smile … and go still. And you go still … and you smile. But that’s a serene smile.

I do not know if you know of the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra state. These are cave monasteries, ancient cave monasteries. If you look at them, you will not think of it as a cave because they are carved architecture – beautifully ornately carved architecture. Similarly, there are the Dunhuang Caves in China, and there are a number of other caves in Sri Lanka, but the most famous are the Dunhuang Caves – and I’ve been most fortunate to go there. And there are statues, ornate pillars, meditation halls, and there is a particular statue of the Buddha there. But they have these aluminum foils by which they throw light, reflect the light on it, because the earlier lighting system was destroying the caves. So they reflect the light. And if the light is thrown on the left side of the Buddha’s face, the face looks sad; but if you reflect the light on the right side, the face looks happy. If you reflect the light right in front, the left and the right are balanced, and the face is serene. That serenity: stimita – that stillness will come to you. Seek that. Aspire for that. I will tell you one thing. If you are making spiritual progress, you will develop a natural smile. Everyone will see you smiling – in all circumstances. If someone is cursing you, your first reaction will be to smile at him. That will be your first response. If somebody is cursing you, your first reaction will be: smile at him.

All right, tomorrow we have one more session on the stations of meditative progress. I’ll see how much I can cover. The rest will come in writing. And, tonight there is another very beautiful dance by one of our initiate members who is also a dancer. And the day after tomorrow morning, at 10 a.m. one person, most deserving, is taking the vow of vanaprastha and some are taking a three-year vow, so you can attend the yajña-shala at that hour. Alright, enjoy. God bless you all. Hari Om. Hari Om. Tat Sat.

Editor’s note

Kundalini Stilled or Stirred by Swami Veda Bharati can be purchased through AHYMSIN Publishers at ahymsinpublishers@gmail.com, through Amazon.com, and through other bookstores.

Sadhana in Applied Spirituality by Swami Veda Bharati can be found at this link: http://ahymsin.org/main/swami-veda-bharati/sadhana-in-applied-spirituality.html

The Signs of Progress in Spirituality and in Meditation: During the 2013 Sangha Gathering, Ahymsin Publishers recorded Swami Veda’s lectures to help those on a spiritual path recognize the signs of progress. He also gave cautions and ‘pitfalls’ to watch out as one navigates their practice. This 9 part series is now available and is invaluable for all seekers wishing to enjoy the guidance of Swami Veda Bharati over the next years as he shifts deeper and deeper into silence. Contact AHYMSIN Publishers at ahymsinpublishers@gmail.com

March 6, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om
Gurave namaḥ.
Parama-gurave namaḥ.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namaḥ.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namaḥ.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namaḥ.
Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.

Om śham.

Is everyone comfortable? Is everyone comfortable in the Ashram? Are there any problems? This is being taken care of by the management I am sure. I wish I could have come around and met you all personally, but I have not and for many incarnations yet developed the ability to make myself into many, like Krishna.

I also have little notes with questions on personal practice. I am trying my best to see those people. I’m not always managing, but you are not forgotten. I will see what I can do. The body has a great many limitations. If you are staying for silence from the 10th March onwards for the 9 or 10 or 12 days and your question is about your personal practice and if I have not answered it, I will do that during that period of silence. I don’t have to speak.

Don’t ask me how to get enlightened tomorrow. I don’t have the power. Alright, so if your question is about personal practice and I have not answered by the 10th of March, and if you are staying for silence, I will do my best to answer that during that period. So if you have sent me a question, send through Medha and give to Medha the date of your departure. Always give a date of your departure and your cabin number or how to reach you. People don’t do that; sometimes they do not even sign their name, so I do not know who this person is.

From 11th March we will have the silent meditation. Do you want 45 minutes or do you want one hour? Those for one hour give me your hand.  And those who want for 45 minutes only raise your hands. Okay, one hour has it.  So there will be daily silent meditation from 11th March with me.  Your silent meditation will be at 5.45 pm every day. That is, from 5.45 pm to 6.45pm daily because after that it is your dinner time. I do not know whether we are retaining this tent or we are moving downstairs because then there will be only 200 persons. Do you know? You can find out for me.

This is the first time that on such a large scale we are doing EEG and other tests on the effect of silence. It has never been done before with so many people at the same time. Out of 200 people who are staying in the two ashrams, less than 50 have chosen to participate – I do not know why others have not chosen – and those 50 are to be staggered in respect of their test dates because of scientific protocols. One test will be before starting their silence. The second one will be at the end of the silence. So some of their tests may not be until 12th or 13th or 14th . That is why we have asked for your departure date; so that your last test will be according to your departure date. I hope this is clear, and if you have any questions on that you may ask Dr Prabhu, whom you know now. Alright, is that all clear? Are all the messages clear?

We’ve been discussing the symptoms of spiritual-meditative progress – no, rather the “stations.” Those who were not here for the entire course will need to find the recordings.

The most important stations are the chakras. Are there six chakras? Are there seven chakras? Are there eight chakras? Are there nine chakras? I have explained this question. And if you read my book, the new book that has come out on kundalinī, that book will explain [Kundalini Stilled or Stirred?]. For different stations of progress there are different chakras. There are thousands of chakras; even your fingertips have chakras.

Wherever three or more streams of energy meet that is called a chakra. This I have said many, many times before. Where two streams of energy meet that is called a sandhi. Where three or more streams of energy meet, those are called chakras. And there is a lot of romantic speculation about the awakening of the chakras. Everybody wants his chakras awakened, and people imagine that this chakra is awakening and that chakra is awakening. I will give you very briefly not all the symptoms, just one or two [symptoms] of the opening of the chakras. Keep that in mind and don’t get misled by all kinds of romantic speculations and fantasies.

In one whose mūlādhāra chakra is opening or has opened, the primary symptom is that he/she becomes stabilized. They are stabilized in marriage, stabilized in business, and stabilized in life because they are stabilized in emotions and not going up and down all the time. And their āsana, their [meditative] posture becomes stabilized. A person whose mūlādhāra chakra is open naturally sits comfortably if he wants to sit for four hours of meditation without feeling discomfort. That is what I look for.

One whose mūlādhāra chakra is opening or has opened develops a natural mūla-bandha, a permanent mūla-bandha, a permanent root-lock. Now don’t start doing it.

I remember way back, maybe forty or forty years ago, a very advanced lady to whom I gave a mantra in Minneapolis. You know, people start reading and then they start practicing. And she read somewhere that the yogis have a permanent mūla-bandha, a permanent root-lock, and so she kept on trying to keep the permanent root-lock. No problem. A few months later my gurudeva Swami Rama called me from Chicago and said, “That lady who helped with the Christianity and Meditation Retreat, I want to see her.” because he had this habit of picking my best students and taking them away. The moment they had reached a certain point, they were gone to my guru, which is my celebration. But then I would have to start with new people all over again. So he called her. And I had no idea that she was practicing the root-lock this way. And as soon as she walked into his presence, he said, “Don’t practice the root-lock so often.” So there are more secrets in the gurus than I know of.

When the mūlādhāra chakra is opening, the root-lock becomes natural. Wait for it to become natural. When you sit to meditate, wait for its energies to rise in such a way that it happens naturally for that time. Well, I have already spoken of natural mūla-bandha and natural kecharī mudra.

One whose svādhisthāna chakra is opening naturally becomes a celibate, a brahmacharin. Now don’t get scared or let your spouse become scared by this. All this talk about svādhisthāna chakra and sexuality is junk. Svādhisthāna chakra has nothing to do with sexuality; it has to do with brahmacharya. That is where the power of brahmacharya resides. If you are in a marital relationship, the frequency of your indulgence will become less. Don’t get scared. Let me tell you one principle of pleasure: the less the frequency the more intense the pleasure – if you indulge with patience and selfless love. And the male will cease to ejaculate. And then comes a time when celibacy becomes natural, but that’s a long way away.  Don’t be afraid: “Oh, I don’t want to meditate because my husband or my wife will get scared.” It’s not going to happen tomorrow.

One whose svādhisthāna chakra is open, his siddhāsana becomes natural. Mūla-bandha and [control of the energies of] svādhisthāna chakra together make siddhāsana a perfect posture.

I am telling you things that are not written in books. Whatever I am teaching you is autobiographical; it is not from books.

One, whose manipura chakra is opening or has opened will know the circulation of pranic energies in the personality and will know how to generate prana. My surgeons said twenty years ago, “If this man sits in an aeroplane, he is dead.” That’s what my heart surgeons said. Since then I have done twenty rounds of world lecture tours. I’m not dead yet, I can prove it! I use the re-energizing processes. But of all the chakras, manipura chakra is the most difficult to open.

Now, one whose anāhata chakra or heart chakra is opening or has opened becomes emotionally stabilized, becomes emotionally independent. He no long suffers from emotional dependence: “I need this one. I need that one. I need care. I need loving.” That I need loving: yes – which means that I need to love you; I need to love others. Such a person’s love becomes a selfless love. His love becomes a universal love. Anyone who comes in your presence feels loved if your heart chakra is open or is opening.

One whose heart chakra is open also sees the interaction of the downward-following energies and upward-flowing energies and knows how to create that total balance between the downward-flowing energies and the upward-flowing energies. In the heart center, there is the intersection of a downward-pointing triangle and an upward-pointing triangle, the shiva-shakti triangle, like the Jewish Star of David. The Muslim crescent is in the svādhisthāna chakra, the Indian swāstika is in the manipura chakra, and the Jewish Star of David is in the heart. What religion are you? Fight, fight, fight.

Okay, I’m giving you very simple formulas.

One whose throat chakra [vishuddha chakra] is open becomes both eloquent and goes into natural silence. Not one word of his wasted. His words become effective, and he goes into natural silence. He does not want to speak. He does not want to speak. He has control over hunger and thirst. People who are suffering from diseases like bulimia and anorexia nervosa, I tell them to concentrate on the throat center. People who are suffering from chronic coughs, I tell them to concentrate on the throat center with a visualization of a full moon – but then there are other intricacies. So, one whose throat chakra has opened doesn’t go about shouting at the world. He develops a serene voice, an effective voice, and is very selective with his words. He becomes a master of languages, but doesn’t use it for showing off. And silence to him becomes natural.

The combination of the heart chakra and ājnā chakra being open gives you intuitive knowledge. That combination is through a secret called daharākāśa, which I have taught to our twenty mantra initiators. They know about it.

One whose ājnā chakra is open, knowledge comes easily to him. His intellect blossoms. You know, I never compose a lecture; I have no notes from which I am speaking. When I write, I write it only once and then others do the little, minor grammatical and idiomatic corrections. I write only once, and I don’t plan it. I don’t sit down and jot down notes about what I am going to write in and what chapter – nothing like that. A person whose ājnā chakra has opened does not use his intellect for dry intellectualizing.

I will not go into sahasrāra chakra, the thousand-petalled lotus, at this time. The first six are enough for you to handle for now. And I will meet you in your seventh incarnation from now, if my guru permits.

Coming back to the throat chakra, or with any meditative progress, the quality of your voice will become more loving and gentle. If you are working in the world and you are guiding a meditation, you will have a special meditative voice. Some of our advanced teachers have developed that meditative voice. I recently gave two courses on cultivating a meditative voice. You can refer to them. One was taught in December, 2011; and another was taught in March, 2012 – how to cultivate a meditative voice.

These are some of the basics signs of the opening of the chakras. The yoga practices and meditative practices are designed to help you on the path to these openings and to these blossoming of the petals. The concentration on the chakras is a very complex system; it has many, many, many different layers and levels. We cannot go into those at this time. Someday sometime we will do a course on chakra meditations for a few very select persons, okay?

There is one area I have not touched. I want to continue with the stations of progress in meditation. We still have March 7th and 8th because March 9th is a special date. If I am not able to cover the entire amount on March 7th and March 8th, then I will do it in writing. I think we should have a book which would be a combination of the three courses: Marks of Spiritual Progress, this current one, Stations of Progress in Spirituality and Meditation, and Cultivating Meditative Voice. It is going to be a massive work.

There is one area I have not covered which I want to cover very briefly. While we have spoken of these wonderful stations, but we have not talked about the traps – and there are quite a few traps. Something happened between yesterday and today, and then I said to myself, “Hmm? That’s an area I have not covered.

One trap is complacency. In the Sānkhya system, if I remember right – sometimes I get rusty – there are nine complacencies. You can see the list in Volume One of my commentary on Yoga-sutras in the portion on the Tattva-samāsa-sūtra; it comes under the topic of tushti (complacencies).1  Like “Oh, my guru will take care of my meditation” – the common Indian phenomenon: “I don’t need to do anything. I don’t have to do anything.” And there are other complacencies: “Well, so what? If I don’t manage to sit for meditation for three days, I’ll pick it up again.” But what actually happens is that you don’t pick up back from where you left off; you have to [start over again and] redo the whole thing. So there are all kinds of complacencies. I am not going into details of everything. When we write the book, we will put the details in.

As you make spiritual progress, there arises in you a desire for recognition. You want to be honored for being such a great high spiritual saint. You are now amongst the great rishis; everybody should touch your feet. I know swamis like that, who get very angry if you don’t touch their feet. When I first returned to India to settle down here, I was in a quandary because back in USA I was addressed informally: “Hi, Swami!  How are you doing?”  “Doing fine, John, how about you?” And then when you arrive in Delhi airport, everyone is falling at your feet and bowing their heads. And I was so embarrassed; I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t used to this anymore. So, I don’t accept it; my heart doesn’t accept it. I don’t want to get trapped. These are traps for a yogi and a sādhaka. So I said to myself, “Anytime someone touches my feet, I’ll touch their feet.” Now in a country like India, the reaction to a swami touching your feet: “Swamiji, what hell are you sending me to?” So I reduced my response, and because I am a worshipper of the Divine Mother, I said to myself, “Okay, if a lady touches my feet, I’ll touch her feet.” So I started doing that, and they were horrified. Even my stepping back was not helpful because they wouldn’t stop their habit. And another problem is that I’m a serious heart patient, so for me to bend down and come up was a physical problem, so I gave up. So now what I do is that if anytime anybody touches my feet, I go into my guru chakra and sahasrāra and I say, “Akhaṇda-maṇḍalākāram vyāptam yena carācaram tat-padaṃ darśitaṃ yena tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ.  Not to me, you take it, you take care of it. I am not taking it.” So touching of the feet is totally passed on.

But there arises this desire [for recognition], and you know how I was cured of this desire? I will tell you my weaknesses. I was standing in my guru’s presence. Now a disciple should be very careful with his thoughts in the guru’s presence, and I was normally very careful. If my guru was sitting with eight persons when I went into his room, I did not who else was present. My mind, my thoughts, my eyes were only on my guru. If I came out of the room, I would not know who else was there in the room. That was my relationship with him. But this particular day one Indian family came and touched his feet, and this flash came in my mind: “Why doesn’t anybody ever touch my feet.” You know what? As they were leaving and they touched my guru’s feet, he said, “Touch his feet!” Oh, my God! That was my cure forever. Gurus do these things with you, and only a guru can get away with it. I’m telling you my secrets. As I told you, whatever I am teaching is autobiographical. So I don’t take your touching of feet; it goes to my guru immediately. It gives me an opportunity to remember him again.

Then there is this trap of pride and desire to be honored, desire to be recognized for your spiritual achievements. There are very, very, very few persons who are free of this, and they are the real sants, the real saints. Watch out, because the same honor can dishonor you and can pull you down.

Another trap: as you make meditative progress your sexual charm increases – and that is a great trap because with that kind of trap, I know of many men teachers – and I know of women teachers also – who have misused it. People misuse that charm. Their disciples are drawn to them and are attracted to them. So, watch out. If you serious with your spiritual progress, watch out because this charm will develop in you, and many will want to have a certain kind of association with you. Don’t get trapped because it will pull you down, and all kinds of scandals will happen around you, okay?

Then, as the energies awaken in you and you don’t know how to handle them and if you are not under the guidance of a guru, they go into the intensity of your negative emotions. If you are not practicing emotional purification, chitta prasadanam – you are familiar with that phrase as we always repeat it in our teachings. If you are not practicing sutra 33 of chapter 1 of the Yoga-sutras of Patañjali, and if you are not practicing chitta prasadanam (making the mind into a pleasant place), if you are not practicing emotional purification, if you are not practicing what I have written in the new book that has been distributed to you: Sadhana in Applied Spirituality, the energies arising from your meditation will give you uncontrollable emotions, for example, uncontrollable anger and uncontrollable lust. So the inner sādhana and the outer sādhana have to go together: sādhana in your emotions, sādhana in your mind-purification and sādhana in your heart-purification. Watch out.

There are one or two other traps that I will mention tomorrow, and then I’ll continue with stations of spiritual progress. Tomorrow I will speak less because  Swami Vishveshwananda Maharaj, the head of Omkarananda Ashram, is visiting us, and I will request him to speak for ten minutes also.  God bless you all. Hari Om.

1 Tattva-samāsa-sūtra 15 – Of the navadhā tushti (the nine complacencies) four are spiritual and five are external: The Four Spiritual Complacencies: (1) Matter will give me realization, (2) Renunciation will give me realization; (3) Time will bring forth realization; (4) Destiny and luck will give me realization. The Five External Complacencies, based on five steps of dispassion (vairāgya): (1) The ways of earning wealth are violent, exploitative and painful; (2) Guarding wealth and the sources of pleasure is painful; (3) Wealth, luxury and pleasure, even well-guarded, are temporary; there is no permanency of feeling of security about them, (4) No matter how many objects of senses one enjoys, there is no satisfaction, and the desires blaze evermore; (5) It is not possible to enjoy oneself without hurting other beings. (from Yoga-sutras of Patañjali with the Exposition of Vyasa: A Translation and Commentary (Volume I – Samadhi Pada), by Pandit Usharbudh Arya [Swami Veda Bharati])

Editor’s note

Kundalini Stilled or Stirred by Swami Veda Bharati can be purchased through AHYMSIN Publishers at ahymsinpublishers@gmail.com, through Amazon.com, and through other bookstores.

Sadhana in Applied Spirituality by Swami Veda Bharati can be found at this link: http://ahymsin.org/main/swami-veda-bharati/sadhana-in-applied-spirituality.html

The Signs of Progress in Spirituality and in Meditation: During the 2013 Sangha Gathering, Ahymsin Publishers recorded Swami Veda’s lectures to help those on a spiritual path recognize the signs of progress. He also gave cautions and ‘pitfalls’ to watch out as one navigates their practice. This 9 part series is now available and is invaluable for all seekers wishing to enjoy the guidance of Swami Veda Bharati over the next years as he shifts deeper and deeper into silence. Contact AHYMSIN Publishers at ahymsinpublishers@gmail.com

March 5, 2013
at the 2013 Sangha Gathering at SRSG

Om
Gurave namaḥ.
Parama-gurave namaḥ.
Parameṣhṭhi-gurave namaḥ.
Paramparā-gurubhyo namaḥ.

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākaraṁ vyāptaṁ yena charācharam.
Tat padaṁ darshitaṁ yena tasmai shrī-gurave namaḥ.
Hiraṇya-garbhād ārabdhām śheṣha-vyāsādi-madhyamām.
Svāmi-śhrī-rāma-pādāntāṁ vande guru-paramparām.

Om tat sat brahmārpaṇam astu.

Om śham.

What an impressive view today! With all your yellow wraps, it looks like you’re half way to sannyāsa. I wish I had such a large group of swamis working for me! And you’re wrapped up in Gāyatrī mantra, what more do you want? What greater protection and assurance for life do you need? [Note: Swamiji had gifted sangha sādhakas with shawls printed with the Gāyatrī mantra.]

Today has been a long day of sessions and meetings, and I am feeling the effect. That’s why I’ve chosen to sit more comfortably. And, I’ll be shorter even than usual.

One problem is that I never manage to complete a course; so I promise, and I do not deliver, because, there is so much to cover, and so little time. You people don’t come for a long enough period. So, we have, after today, three more days left. I’ll see how much I can cover, and the rest will be left for another time, or for the computer. Sometimes I think that computers and CD’s are going to obtain enlightenment and liberation long before us! They retain!

I’ll continue on the subject of the stations in your spiritual and meditative progress, and what happens as you progress, as you experience.

I’ve told you of the three symptoms, three sensations in the chakras. That’s not all, but that is very brief. And when these three kinds of sensations do occur, there are three practices; there are many more, but there are three to start with. You feel as though the breath is flowing in and out of that chakra; that’s one. Another is that you feel as though the breath is ascending from and descending to that chakra. And the third one is that, with both forms of breath, you feel as though your mantra is arising in that chakra. These are the three practices to start with. You can experiment quite safely, but is always best to consult your meditation guide.

I spoke to you of the sensations and symptoms. I’ve not covered everything. For example, some people have the experience of sound, inner sounds in what we call brahmara guha, “the cave of the bees,” in the right half of the head, inside the right ear. Or, one may hear anāhata nāda, the “unstruck sound” in the anāhata chakra, the heart chakra. But don’t start imagining and fantasizing! Every time you have an experience, that is not full enlightenment. You’re not yet a yoga-āchārya and yoga-rishi and a meditation master.

There is an easier way to become a meditation master! Go back from Rishikesh and contact a PR company. Ask them to advertise you as a meditation master who has come back from training in the Himalayas, and you will be very rich! This is one way to become a meditation master. That is the way of the Kali Yuga! But, some of us are still backward, way back, living in the consciousness of the Satya Yuga and trying to ward off the onslaughts of this Kali Yuga as much as we can. If you have something truly to offer, the world will come to you, because you will be a magnet.

So, there is the experience of sound. And, there are ways to respond to that experience. I’m not here to teach you the secrets of nāda-yoga at this time. I’ve given the nāda-yoga initiation to just one or two people in my life.

Then there is the experience of light. Mainly the experience of light occurs either in the center between the eyebrows or inside the head. And, there are many different kinds of experiences of light. It could be a white light, it could be a blue light, or it could be a red light. And, each one has a meaning. There is more, if you are ambitious, and you have your goals set for the next twenty-five or fifty years of sādhana and you are truly serious, then these things will happen. There comes a time when the every nāḍi, all the 72,000 energy currents look like they are rays of luminosity. But, enough of that because now at the moment for you it is a very dramatic speculation.

But on the question of light, long ago, in the 1970’s, in The Meditation Center, in Minneapolis, I gave a lecture titled “Sources of Light.”  Where Do These Lights Come From? You can ask Swami Ritavan if he can dig out that, and when you are doing the transcriptions of this series, refer to that. But every little flash of light is not enlightenment.

Then, there is the experience of fragrance. The experience of fragrance happens from two sources. One is that something triggers the electric storm in the odor centers, the smell centers of the brain. We have a dozen doctors here. They will tell you that there are certain conditions of brain disorders when patients smell all kinds of things, right? They are not mystics!

Every experience you have is not a mystical experience, and, it is not a mystery. I follow one principle: If there is a scientific explanation for something, I do not accept it as a spiritual experience. If there is a scientific or medical explanation for something, I do not accept it as a spiritual experience. And, there may be experiences for which the present science and medical science has not yet arrived at an understanding scientifically, but it may still be a scientific or a physiological or medical condition, okay? So, don’t get mislead by every little experience that happens.

So, there is this experience of fragrance. I said two sources; actually there are three: There can be a sense of fragrance by the concentration on nāsagra at some point, someday, if you have good concentration.

What is the principal of concentration? Sa tu dīrgha-kāla-nairantarya-satkārāsevito dṛḍha-bhūmiḥ “Practiced: dīrgha-kāla: “for a long time”; nairantaraya: “without interval”; satkārā: “with due faith and respect”; then it becomes firm of ground. [See the commentary on Sūtra 1:14 in Yoga-sῡtras of Patañjali with the Exposition of Vyāsa: A Translation and Commentary (Volume I – Samādhi Pāda), by Swami Veda Bharati (Pandit Usharbudh Arya).] 

Concentration on nāsagra, and one or two other concentrations can give you experience of celestial smells.

But, there is another one, and few people even in this gathering, are fortunate enough to have experienced that: The siddhas, the gurus project themselves in the form of a fragrance, and they thereby make their presence known that they have blessed you.

These things do happen, but do not sit for your meditation practice in expectation of them: “When am I going to see the lights? Lord God, I signed a contract with you, and you haven’t fulfilled your end of the contract and shown me light, nor have you let me hear your celestial music. I have not experienced any fragrance of the siddhas. This meditation is no good.”

What you are looking for – I say it repeatedly and I say it here again – what you are looking for is not experiences. What you are looking for is . . . stillness. That is all. If your meditation leads you to stillness while you are meditating, and after you have risen from your meditation, then you are making progress – stillness.

Your way of body movement will change. It will be a flowing movement. And your body will remain always relaxed. I can sit here, if I have the physical strength, and speak to you for three hours, and my body will remain this relaxed [Swami Veda demonstrates this by lifting one arm with the other and dropping it limply to his meditation seat]. You can test me anytime. And your body will remain relaxed, especially in the moments that trigger stress. And, when the masters train you, as they did with me, they put you in the moment of stress and then say, “Stay Calm.” They excite you, agitate you, challenge you, and, you respond to the challenge, and he says, “Stay Calm.” “Oh, alright, I missed it.”

There are many practices related to the chakras of which I have spoken elsewhere. I had a small gathering of ten or twelve select teachers to whom I gave some indications, maybe about a month back, and when the transcripts of these lectures come to you, references will be made to those teachings.

In the chakras, there are yajñas, there are pūjas. Many people ask me about this very natural and high ambition of bindu-bhedana,“bursting through the point.” I have spoken about it many places before. It starts with understanding the central points of the petals of each chakra, merging those bindus, and then you burst through that merged mahā-bindu. That is the art of dying.

Another thing that happens quite often in meditation is a feeling of expansion of space. At present, your consciousness is limited only to the space that your physical body is occupying. The next stage comes of experiencing the space of what is known in the Tantras as dvādashānta.

Do you know one thing? – and, I’m repeating myself because I’ve said it before many times: Every individual is the same height. Everybody is 108 digits tall.

These 108 digits are your own digits. The physical part, if you measure from the toes to the top of the head is 96 digits. The prana body extends 12 digits more, here. This is where I meditate [Swami Veda gestures to an area 12 digits above the crown of his head]. But, don’t you start doing it. You begin to experience that space as your own space, just as at present you experience only the physical body’s space.

Then, there may be further expansion, and there’s no end to that. In the higher Vipassana teachings, there is a term ākāśānantyāyatanam (ākāśa anantya āyatanam) – too difficult to write down; I can write it down for you later – the experience of “unending space.” So, that whole universe becomes your body.

The armchair spiritualists sit back there and start imagining. That’s not the way. The way of fantasy is not the way of spirituality. Just because you’ve read something, just because you’ve heard something, you start imagining. That is not progress. When it happens naturally, then you know where to go with it. So, this expansion of space occurs.

I’m not talking of little problems people feel. Sometimes they feel fear at the next step, and so on, so on. That is a different topic. We do not have time for it in these few days.

All important: your mantra ceases to be in your mouth and on your tongue. Some of you are still practicing the mantra in the mouth and on the tongue. The mind is an ocean. The mind is an ocean, and that whole ocean of the universal mind is inside you. That ocean has many layers and levels of subtler and yet subtler and yet subtler energies, just as the ocean has depths below depths below depths. And at what depth you practice your mantra, so that it ceases to be a word and becomes a vibration, depends on how you allow yourself to go inwards: by relaxing, by gentle breathing, by lengthening your breath, and so on. If you go into that – and in the spiritual realms, what we call “higher” is “deeper,” and what we call “deeper” is also “higher” – your mantra becomes faster. It becomes faster because it is moving more and more towards becoming less a word and more a vibration, a vibration in a given layer of the mind. It is a vibration in a given layer of the mind, depending on how deep you are going, okay?

I have spoken on this subject elsewhere in some detail: The time that it takes you to think your mantra once, in that time the Guru thinks your mantra 512 times! 512 is the figure, and there’s a mathematics to it. That’s why he can take care of so many people. And, sometimes their grace manifests itself involuntarily. Your mantra begins to go fast.

And, remember that principle I’ve given you: when something happens in you, just go there, become absorbed, just observe, just become absorbed in it. Just experience it. Dwell there as long as it lasts. And, if it’s gone, don’t struggle. It’s not in your hands. A very old sentence of mine: “Grace and a baby do not come by appointment.”Alright? They do not come by appointment. So when the Guru comes into your mind in this form, don’t say, “Well, when will I see you next?” We’ll see, we don’t know. They have their own rhythm by which they operate.

But remember that this mantra becoming faster on its own is actually the first thing that should happen to you. All the rest comes later. And when that happens, just dwell there, experience it.

There are two ways to meditation: your effort as a technique, and the Guru’s grace. If your effort is sincere, the grace will come. And, without that grace, nothing actually, nothing will truly fructify.

Here I find a vast difference between the modern Western mind and the Indian mind. The Western mind believes in its own effort: “I can do it. I’ll do it. So, what technique should I follow, Swamiji?” And they believe in doing it on their own. In India, the psychology is of too much dependence: “Just give me your grace. I don’t want to go through all this sitting and doing sādhana. Just give me your grace.” Easy and cheap. I find that here. I don’t know what they have made of swamis and yogis in India. Half the people who come to me and to the swamis say things like: “My son is sitting for an exam next week. Swamiji give your blessing so that he passes.” I’m not an examiner! “Ah, Swamiji, my son-in-law has applied for a job in the civil service. Give your blessing.” Half the people in India, they come to the swamis and yogis with these requests. “My son is not getting a child.” Forgive me! I don’t do those things. I’m a useless swami, really, absolutely useless! I only know to shut my eyes and shut my mouth – and sometimes open my mouth a little. That’s all I know. I only know to teach meditation.

And, I’ve told you many times, my Master said “Let me grant you some siddhis.” And I said, “Maharaji, I’ve no interest in siddhis. If you only give me samādhi, that is all.” So, I have no siddhis. You’ll be very disappointed. I have no powers to show, okay. If you want to come here, come for meditation – pure meditation.

One day I was walking on an island called Ko Samui off the east coast of Thailand. And these Indian merchants were everywhere. And on that island there were a series of Indian shops, and they saw a swami passing. And this shopkeeper came running out: “Swami pranam!” “Bless you.” “Where are you from?” “From Rishikesh.” “From Rishikesh!” – like I was from heaven. “Rishikesh” is a magic word. “Ah sa.” Then he stretches his palm out. “So then, do you read palms?” I said “No, I don’t read palms.” He did not say one single word; he turned and walked back into his shop! That is the level of spirituality in India – with a lot of people.

Now, listen to this. Three shops later, another man, a shopkeeper, saw this swami, came rushing out, and there was exactly the same exchange: “Swamiji, pranam.” “Blessings.” “Swamiji, where are you from?” “From Rishikesh” “Oh, from Rishikesh! Do you read palms?” “No, I don’t read palms.” Not one word more, back into the shop. What kind of swami is he who doesn’t read palms! I don’t even read minds, leave alone palms. Why should I invade your privacy? Tell me!

So, don’t get confused by the meaning of spirituality. Keep it pure and apply it in the way I have written in this book that is distributed to you Sadhana in Applied Spirituality. Apply it, practice it.

I’m sorry, I’m very, very tired today, and I’m going to cut it short. And, don’t take my scolding too seriously!

Be happy. Practice.

You look wonderful in these yellow scarves!

God bless you all! Thank you.

Editor’s Notes

Sadhana in Applied Spirituality can be read at http://ahymsin.org/main/swami-veda-bharati/sadhana-in-applied-spirituality.html

“Sources of Light” is in Kundalini Stilled or Stirred as “Spheres of Light.” There are also these talks by Swami Veda on light: “Meditation of the Flame / The Centers of Flame” (1976), “Light Meditation” (1976), “River of Light and Life Meditation” (1976), “Light in Meditative Experience” (1977).

Kundalini Stilled or Stirred by Swami Veda Bharati can be purchased through AHYMSIN Publishers at ahymsinpublishers@gmail.com, through Amazon.com, and through other bookstores.

The Signs of Progress in Spirituality and in Meditation: During the 2013 Sangha Gathering, Ahymsin Publishers recorded Swami Veda’s lectures to help those on a spiritual path recognize the signs of progress. He also gave cautions and ‘pitfalls’ to watch out as one navigates their practice. This 9 part series is now available and is invaluable for all seekers wishing to enjoy the guidance of Swami Veda Bharati over the next years as he shifts deeper and deeper into silence. Contact AHYMSIN Publishers at ahymsinpublishers@gmail.com