Category: Swami Veda Bharati

Om Om Om

This is 9th June [1995] morning at the ashram in Rishikesh – 5:20 am here. The sky is full of sounds – birds’ songs, so rich – of which I sent you all a cassette at one time. The intruder into the bird songs is the cawing of crows that is loud, imperialistic, uncaring . . . but the birds continue to sing. I hope that during this recording no other loud sounds will be heard. If they are heard, please ignore them. I should have done this recording an hour and a half ago, but the momentum of working the Yoga-sutra II.52 was vibrant, and I continued typing, and now I am a little late. And I do want to put this into the mail so that it gets to Minneapolis and from there gets to Calgary. Calgary, a place I’m really very, very fond of. In terms of seriousness of studies it is only second to Germany where people are really serious. On the other hand, I may be doing injustice to others who do study and don’t want to bother me with questions because they are capable of answering themselves. This is also true of Calgary, but I am happy for any reason to communicate – a teacher of silence who loves to speak. Perhaps I will close with that theme at the end.

Let us understand – layers upon layers, fields within fields, kośas within kośas, pillow cases within pillow cases, veils behind veils. Each one has its own frequency, its own “voice,” shall we say, its own light, its own sound. As you know, in our tradition we merge the light and the sound, and the sādhana of one leads to the sādhana of the other. Again, [referring] to the two sūtras in my little book of blessings:

“May you hear sound that light produces as it travels through space.
May you see the light that sound creates as it travels through space.”

Where is that space? What space is it through which the light and the sound travel? What space is it where they are first created so that the light and sound of the universe may eventually emerge from that supreme mind that contains these intangible principles that cannot be measured by any instrument?

I see it in terms of spanda, the central core of the Kashmir philosophy that developed from the 8th century to, say, the 14th or 15th century and created spiritual and intellectual giants. The philosophy of spanda, the philosophy of vibration: [that] within each force-field there is a certain frequency, its voice, its sound.

What the frequency of ātman, the spiritual self, is only the ātman knows because any statement about ātman can only be nonsense statements. Nonsense, like the questions that people often ask: “Where does the soul go after death?” “What happens to the soul after death?” – as though something can happen to a soul. “Where does the soul go after death?” What an absurdity of questions! What absurdity is that one question! Because, “where” implies place, space. “Goes” implies movement in that space from point to point. “After” implies time. “Death”?! Whose death? The soul’s death?! Ātman’s death?! ­ All absurd. No language can ask a question about ātman; therefore no language can answer it. You would have to say, “NA – Does not apply.” To any question about ātman I will say, “NA – Does not apply.” So let us leave ātman alone. It loves kaivalya: aloneness, solitude, being solo. Kaivalya, the last word in the Yoga-sutras: solitude of the soul.

But to get to that solitude of the soul, one has to pass through those barriers of noises, these frequencies, these high-frequency, low-frequency regions of energies, force-fields. So at each level, the silence is a relative one. Relative to what? Relative to the exterior [level], to that force-field which is exterior to it.

I am answering your questions in a general way rather than answering specific questions.

In meditation, in the practice of mantra, we use mantra as a vehicle to explore the depth upon depth. Whether your japa is to write your mantra 125,000 times . . . . You know that they have mantra banks in India. There is an article in the Journal of Vaishnava Studies (Vol. 2 No. 2, Spring, 1994). It’s published by Folk Books, P.O Box 400716, Brooklyn, New York 11420-0716. That’s the pin code. The FAX number is 1 (718) 852-9109. It’s an article by Philip A. Lutgendorf, titled Banking on the Name. You might find it interesting – mantra banks where people just write their mantra, the individual mantra or the mantra that is taught to them in the given denomination 125,000 times or a million times and so forth and send them as an offering.

That is one way to do japa. After a while the mantra has to sit in the mind.

• The mantra is at the lowest possible frequency of chanting, singing, kirtana.
• Getting a little more silent and muttering it to oneself.
• Going on deeper, closing the lips, sealing the lips and letting the tongue utter it quietly.
• Stilling the tongue, but there is still activity in the larynx.
• Stilling the larynx, but the mind is still sending the pulsations to the vocal organs, but they are intercepted by the silent command – by the command to silence.
• The mantra in the mind as a thought.
• Then mantra as vibration.
• The mantra as a quest for that “wherefrom” it arises.
• And once that “wherefrom” has been found, taken into it, and like a boat, having reached the other shore, is left behind – and you go into deep and eternal silence. Well, not quite “eternal,” but a moment of silence . . . . and slowly becomes a habit.

Now, it is on the matter of habit, habit, habit as to which rampart you think you have your duty on. In this fortress, this pura, this polis, in the City of the Body there are ramparts and ramparts. So where you have formed the habit to stay determines your level of silence. So you have the “silence of speech,” the “silence of the senses.”

Long ago I did a talk called ‘Five Silences.’ You might want to listen to that sometime. Recently I have done an original composition in Sanskrit verse, “Mauna Nimanisa” and was told that it would be published in some Sanskrit journal in Varanasi – in which I have spoken of twelve silences, but we should not bother to go into that right now.

So, our practice of the silence of speech and our practice of mantra leading to interior silence is one and the same as quieting the mind during meditation, during formal meditation. And formal meditation cannot be separated from trying to keep the mind as undisturbed, as much in equanimity as possible during the day, throughout the day. One supports the other; the other supports the one.

The habit of reacting violently with anger, with disturbance with defensiveness, with counter-attack, that we have conquered in our years of practicing ahimsa, is based on this one principle: That situation which makes a coward flee, makes the hero fight. The same adrenaline and the same epinephrine is needed for both. It is a matter of which particular one of these so-called natural responses you chose, you select. Similarly, in a situation of provocation, of disturbance, of agitation, the untrained chose to become tense and troubled, the trained chose to become relaxed. It is a matter of training oneself as to which response you chose. It is only a matter of training. This answers your question: “How can I maintain silent and remain effective in the social norms?”

Question: “How can I be silent and remain effective in the social norms?”

The same way as you drive effectively through a “Silence Zone” in the city.

Does your driving become ineffective? The next time you drive through a “Silence Zone” in the city, as you look at the sign, “Silence Zone,” see the subtle change that occurs in you. It is not simply a matter of refraining from placing your finger on the horn; a certain change occurs in you. Observe that change. It is very subtle. The mind remains noisy and does not quite see the silence. Just a modicum of silence, a drop of that elixir falls into your mind. People say that a single drop of honey will not sweeten the ocean. Indeed not, but where it will fall, a subtle change will occur. That kind of change occurs, my friends, when you enter the Silence Zone in the city. And you drive quite effectively – no problem. So it is when you enter an Intensive Care unit in a hospital. It is not only a matter of making your feet tip-toe; what is the subtle change that occurs in your mind? How does it help you to communicate? How does it help you to communicate with that beloved person who is a patient there, and with others who are around? The change is very subtle. You may come away saddened. You may also come away chastened, having learned something because you now operated your mind at a different frequency level.

It is strange that what we practice naturally all the time appears as something unachievable when it is advised in so many words. So then, the silence both in meditation and in ordinary life is a relative one. It is a matter of changing the frequencies of your being, the spanda-level with which you operate and with which you identify at any given time.

Question: Is this inner state of silence some kind of early and dim manifestation of the ātman?

Yes, indeed! You have answered yourself. If I may contradict myself, and say this about ātman: that all I know about it and can communicate about it is by an allegory, by a simile, by a metaphor: The rays of light – and now I shall not say “sound” – and silence that emanate from it as they travel outward from its central core, the emanations from that core go through the various levels of the vikṛtis (the manifestations, the modifications, the devolutes) of prakṛti, from the innermost buddhi to the outermost active senses – and the plastic pieces and tubings and ropes (bones, blood vessels, cartilage and muscles that keep these plastic pieces tied down) to that level – from inside to outwards, it becomes a progressively slower frequency and, we might say, noisier and noisier, grosser and grosser. The same is true of the reverse process. With whichever layer of yourself you identify, that determines the depth of your silence.

That is to say, okay, you relaxed your hands and feet. Well, it has to filter down; your voice will change. Have you not noticed how the voice of a good meditation teacher changes as he is conducting a meditation? He is using his voice, but at the same time he is identifying with a much higher frequency-layer within himself. That is why his voice changes; and the vocal cords he uses are different than the vocal cords that a yelling, shouting, angry man employs. Both are producing sound. But one sound is allied to an inner silence. The other sound is completely out of synchrony with anything else within himself; he is a bundle of conflicts, and it shows, and in that anger he contradicts himself. So I am unable to separate between doing silence, meditation, mantra, being taken into silence, silence as a practice of not speaking. This also answers the [next] question.

Question: Should the mantra be willed into silence or allowed to dissolve into silence, or does the latter come with practice?

Just as, initially, sitting down and remembering the word So-ham was somewhat of a chore, practice made it perfect – or as close to perfect as it could be. So also mantra became an interior habit. When it arose, you began to listen to it. You had to put in some practice; you had to allow it its own moment of arising and respond to it also. You had to practice it consciously . . . and accept it as grace when it arose within you. So it goes with the practice of silence. When the mantra arises within you and you maintain your interior response to it, your observation of the fact that it is there and you are receiving it as an act of grace conferred upon you; if you can maintain that response within and then you speak, you are speaking from a relative degree of silence.

So once again, with which layer of yourself are you identifying? A relatively lower frequency? A relatively higher frequency? The exterior self, or a relatively interior self? (Here the term “self” is used in terms is “identity,” not in terms of ātman.)

Now this fear: “Oh! I will lose out in society!” is unfounded. You know that I do not teach from a book – Guru has granted me this kindly grace. I do not write from a book. I appear to write from a book, but what is written and what is said is what’s been experienced, a little. And I quote books only to be credible. Who wants to listen to this person’s philosophical fantasies that are all his own, with no philosophical background and so forth? That’s why a give all sorts of arguments and quote scriptures and refer to manuscripts and God knows what – so both the scholarly and the unscholarly will both believe me. And I am saying this from personal experimentation in life: The more silent I became, the more effective I became.

I have recently sent out a little story about my search for manuscripts. I don’t know if it has reached you: “No, no, no! It can’t be done!” people say. “The manuscripts can’t be given.” “The library is locked by court order. Nobody is allowed access.” “It’s in dispute.” “Well, I guess we could allow someone to come with a lead pencil and take just a few notes, a few jottings, but we’re not going to allow photocopying and full-text copying – Nothing.” And then I go to that city and go to the doorsteps of the curator. I don’t even ask for the library to be opened. If I ask, I ask in silence. I’ll tell you, you can have that job that you covet if you know the art of silence. You don’t believe me because you have been trained differently, because you formed a different habit; because you have been taught to counter; because you have been led to a conditioning of the mind wherein [you think that if] someone speaks loudly [and] if you spoke louder, you would be heard. Quite the contrary!

Question: “Whereas silence is golden to some, it is likely to be awkward in Western culture where fluid speech and superb communication skills are so highly valued.”

No, you cannot have good communication skills without silence. Communication skill means modulating silence and sound effectively. We have to lower the voice or raise the voice. Where to emphasize and accent a certain word, where to de-emphasize requires singular self-observation. How can you have self-observation?

You know – I’m sorry to tell you this, but with all this talk in the West about communication skills – I’m not impressed. Uh-uh! You cannot teach communication skills in courses and colleges and training programs. Communication skills are taught in infancy, in childhood. Go to the societies where joint family systems prevail and you will notice what communication skill is. Even go to Spain or South America. Go to the families that are prosperous in modern business, families of a well-known publisher where 45 people live in a single house by choice, not out of poverty. Communication skill there is taught from pregnancy.

“Communication skill” means a loving relationship.

This is a slightly different topic, but whatever effectiveness has come to me, has come from calming myself. And when I handle a situation calmly, it works. Recently I’ve made two cassettes on “Insight Seeing,” a sporadic series I have been doing over a decade or two. If I have some interesting travel, I record my impressions.

One day I was traveling in a train from Haridwar to Delhi – a very nice train; I recommend it highly – and I did not want to talk. One reason that I prefer to travel by car rather than go by train is that it helps me to maintain silence, but what kind of silence does one have to maintain in insisting company? People in India are really insistent in talking. You don’t know. If you sit down in the train, by the time you’ve finished your journey, you’ve probably arranged your daughter’s marriage or your son’s engagement. With a complete stranger, you might even decide to step down from the train and the midway station and go and visit him. It’s very common. And this man sitting next to me realized that this Swami didn’t want to talk very much, so out of politeness he stayed quiet after one or two questions. (I am repeating what I have already told you in another cassette.) Dinner came. It is one of those rare trains in the world where dinner is served free of charge – dinner or breakfast or lunch or whatever – and he wasn’t there. I finished my dinner, and he came five or ten minutes later, and I spoke to him. I said, “You did not have dinner.” “No, I did not,” he said. “Are you alright?” I asked. Because in a country like India where speaking is a religion, not silence, nobody minds personal questions; people mind not being asked personal questions. I asked, “Why?” He said, “Well, I prefer a non-vegetarian dinner, and I dare not do that in your presence. I’ll eat after we get to Delhi, and I’ll go to a restaurant.” I do not have to ask him. Many of you know that in vegetarian societies just the sight of meat is abhorrent. And people know that. And if you are polite you will not expose a vegetarian to the sight of something that has been killed. It is understood.

So in silence you can have your wishes fulfilled, but not by not speaking. No, no, no no. You will not have your wishes fulfilled by not speaking. You will have your wishes fulfilled by practicing silence. Please understand this. Identifying with the higher-frequency you, the relatively inner layer, and remaining there and operating from there. And since the energy, the force-field there is higher – it is subtler – it is more effective; it has a much higher energy level and it can influence the lesser-frequency layers of your being. And at each level you witness where you are, and the state of silence becomes natural. After a while you do not wish to speak. After a while you find that it is unnecessary to say so much – for without speaking your wishes are fulfilled. Silence can be your wishing stone.

Question: “What role does the breath play in maintaining silence?

The same thing I said about the mantra I would say about the breath. Both are vehicles for going to the interior layers. After a while, in the kevala kumbhaka, which I have translated in Yoga-sutra, Chapter Two, Sutra 51, as “the solo retention.” All effort at retention of breath ceases and the breath first becomes so subtle that it is barely noticeable. Then only the prāṇa force remains. One is at that point totally identified with the prāṇa-maya-koṣa (the casing made of prāṇa) which is much subtler than the anna-maya-koṣa (the casing made of food). And when one identifies with this particular layer, the breath ceases. And it is said by the commentators on the Yoga-sutras that one may not breathe physically for hours, days, months, years. “Incredible! Beyond imagination! Not possible! Scientifically not possible!” No.

Dhruvha is one of names in India of one of the child-sages. There is quite a long list of them. Someday I would like to have someone sit down with me and do a book on the child-sages of India, or the child-sages of the yoga tradition – whatever way you want to put it.

Way back in historical times, Dhruvha’s father, the king, was married twice and had two wives. The present queen is very proud of her station, but has no issue herself, and the child of his other wife makes her utterly jealous. One day Dhruvha comes to the king, as a child would, to sit in his father’s lap. Sitting on his throne, the father picks him up and takes him on lap. The queen snatches the child and pulls him off the father’s lap and says, “To sit in that lap, you have to be born from this womb!” The child goes crying to his mother. His mother says, “You have another father. Go to him.” So the five-year-old Dhruvha (which means “the firm one,” “the steady one,” “the stable one”) walks out and sits in the forest, calling the name of the Lord – calling upon him, calling upon him, calling upon him, with that utter devotion that can only come from a child. And his mind ceases. His breath ceases. And it is said in the Puranas that when Dhruvha ceased breathing and when he went into this natural solo retention, his mind and his prana had so become one with universal mind and the universal pranathat all the living beings, from the denizens under the earth to the celestials in their paradise, began to choke. They could breathe no more. And they went running to Lord Vishnu – “What is this?!” And the Lord Preserver knew that someone had sat in utter devotion and his breath had ceased and his prana had been stilled. And since Dhruvha’s prana was the universal prāṇa, the universe was in danger of dissolution. Lord the Preserver descends and stands before the child devotee, and touches his cheek with his conch shell. (In Indian ritual the conch shell is used to reproduce the cosmic sound in worship. The interior of the conch shell is like the spiraling galaxies. The exterior is the form, and the interior is the sound that remains silent. Like the way you [put a sea shell to your ear] and listen to the ocean, the devotees of India listen to the cosmic sound, for the conch shell of one the sacred objects that Vishnu holds in his hands.) He touches the child’s cheek with his conch shell that contains the silences of the universe. And when one is touched by Lord the Preserver’s conch shell, which contains all the silences of the universe, hymns come flowing forth – once again, silence is not silence of speech – and Dhruvha’s utterances melt Lord the Preserver’s heart and he grants him anything he will wish for. Dhruvha, the child, the silent sage, the silent child sage, standing on his one leg uttering the hymns, says, “Lord, I seek nothing, but that whenever I remember you, you should come before me.”

This is a long story, cut very, very short. Some other time, some other day I’ll tell you the whole story and recite Dhurvha’s hymns. So now, changing the topic a little . . . .

Question: “Is there a specific practice to counter talking too much – the inner pressure to speak?”

This is the same type of question as to whether there some type of practice to stop over eating. Talking too much or overeating are repressions of an interior emptiness. We have a common proverb in India: “A half-empty vessel makes a lot of splashing noise.” A full vessel when carried does not make a sound. If it’s half empty or three-fourths empty or has just a little bit of water or any other liquid in it, then can hear it splashing inside as you carry it. Whenever we see someone talking too much, we say, “Empty vessel makes a lot of noise.” Yes, there is a way. Fill yourself. If your mind is full, you will not try to fill it by filling the stomach, which is already overfilled. But the mind is not fulfilled and so you keep trying to overfill the stomach. If you cannot desist from speaking, you have not been loved enough. “Yeah! Ah yes! I knew that! Ah! I know. Nobody loves me.” So, what to do? Is there some kind of a begging bowl you can carry that people will fill with love because you talk too much? You think you are getting attention, ah? But very soon people turn away. You don’t get the attention you want. Why? Because you are not giving the attention except to what is in your mind, in the conscious mind, in the voluble part, the lower-frequency mind. Fill your mind. No, the practice of total silence is not for you, but try it for half an hour. As I have said before, refraining from speech is no silence. Japa is silence. Fill your mind with meditation. Fill your mind with contemplation. Fill your mind with witnessing. Fill your mind with self-observation. Fill your mind with the higher-frequency energy and forces until they overflow and become love that goes out of you into the begging bowls of those who today are as sorry for themselves as you were before you were filled.

I wish you much filling and much fulfilling.
I wish you the Wishing Stone of Silence.
God Bless You!

Editor’s Note

Answers to questions on silence sent to sadhakas in Calgary, Canada. Recorded at Sadhana Mandir on 9th June 1995 and transcribed.

Always remember that there is a difference between information and knowledge. You have read something, that is information. You are debating about it in the mind. That is also based on information. Most people think that that information is knowledge and they say to themselves “I have read so much, so I know”. But that information is not knowledge. Knowledge is a personal experience.

That you have read about non-violence, that is not knowledge of non-violence. That you have experienced non-violence, practised it, that is the knowledge of non-violence. You have learned how to use non-violence in situations which will otherwise invoke violence. That is non-violence. You have read about advanced techniques of meditation, that is not knowledge. When you have the experience that those techniques give you, then even without the technique, you have knowledge. Your goal should be that knowledge.

You have read about God in many books, in many religions. That is not knowledge of God. You believe in God, that is not knowledge of God. That you know God personally, that is knowledge. So practice your meditation with that knowledge as your goal.

When you have that knowledge, it shows itself in you. It shows itself in how you look. Do you have a loving look on your face? That a stranger looks at you and feels loved, a complete stranger looks at you and feels loved? That is the knowledge of God.

Your knowledge shows in the way you speak. Does your voice soothe others when you speak, then you have knowledge of God. Does it calm others when you speak, that is knowledge of God.

The way you move your body, inspires in others and appreciation for grace. That is the knowledge of God. Or knowledge of Christ, or knowledge of Buddha, or knowledge of Tao. All these phrases mean the same thing.

Many people who sit in meditation look for many experiences. The only experience that you need to look for is a state of calmness inside you. You have read that in meditation one will see lights and one will hear sounds. Forget about that. Does your body become calm and still? Does your heart become free of disturbed emotions? Does your breath slow down? How long does your mind remain calm and undisturbed even after you have opened your eyes from meditation? That shows whether you are meditating or not. That is knowledge of God.

When you see God not only in your friend, when you see God in your enemy and you act accordingly – that is the knowledge of God. When you enter a state of meditation, what you call meditation at this time, that initial stage will be left behind. You will go further. You will go deeper. You will become even calmer and greater illumination will come to you. Knowledge will start coming to you from within you.

Editor’s Note

This passage has been taken from the book Kundalini: Stilled or Stirred? by Swami Veda Bharati.

Does a soul after death go to heaven or hell, or does it reincarnate? On the surface it would appear to be a controversial question, but it really is not, once the definition of heaven and hell is better understood.

There is also the question about the transition period. How long does one stay in heaven, hell or in the purgatory? How long does it take for one to reincarnate? Different cultures and traditions ascribe different time periods. It should be understood that the question of such temporality is irrelevant to the soul which is not limited to our sense of time. The sense of time for different states and levels of consciousness varies. For example, we must measure our time during a dream in two ways. The time an event seemed to take during the dream is quite real while the dream lasts. Yet it is not to be measured against a clock ticking in the same room where the dreaming person lies in bed. One might be tempted to suggest that, well, of course, the time being told by the clock is real; the time experienced during sleep is merely subjective. Such an assertion is based on the unproved assumption that what is subjective is unreal, which is not the case. Are our unexpressed mental thoughts, memories, feelings unreal?

Excepting the liberated Masters, all the experiences of a soul in transition from death through heaven or hell or a reincarnation occur within the subtle body. Our subtle body is constituted of a very refined level of material energies, such as pranas, powers of the senses and so forth, and serves as an individualized instrument of the universal unconscious. The individualized chitta serves as the repository of all our impressions which become the samskaras, creating latent tendencies which finally mature into karmic fruition. Such karma ripens at a physical level but some only on the mental level and within the subtle body. Just as our mental sicknesses – including milder disturbances – are part of the karmic fruition, so also are the experiences between death and the next life. It is important to note that the philosophical systems of India, including Buddhism, accept reincarnation as well as heaven and hell. The deeper aspects of the teaching make it make it clear that heaven and hell exist only in the subtle world. A number of passages in the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad (4.3.8-20) state that the experiences between death and rebirth are in the same category as dreams, a twilight zone. The wakefulness is like being in this body, in this world; the sleep and dream states are as though a transition after death and before rebirth. The life force, the soul wrapped up in the subtle body, sees whatever it has stored in its unconscious chitta and from its own light creates its own worlds, within its own time zone. The experiences of this zone of awareness draw from the previous life, the previous series of experiences and their samskaras.

According to the same Upanishad (4.4.6),

…to whatever one is attached, he goes to that as a result of his actions, to whatever his subtle body and the mind are affixed. Coming to the end of that action whichever he has performed here, from that world he returns again to this world to perform actions. Such is the state of those who desire…

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Meditation and the Art of Dying by Pandit Usharbudh Arya, who later became Swami Veda Bharati. 1979. Pages 90 – 92.

What I have observed, and I’ve come to observe this well because my own family lives in two worlds, is the influence of modern society on our ability to be defenceless. My children live at home in a world which is my world of philosophy, scholarship, thinking gentle thoughts, meditation, and peaceful feelings. Then my children go to school and in response to peer group pressure, they have to build defences and cultivate aggressiveness to stay alive and survive, because gentleness and quietness does not work.

I saw a transformation in my children from what they were 6 years ago as young children and what they had to become to survive in school. I found them much easier at home in the summer when they were not going to school. They were much more difficult in the evenings after school because they did not know that they could make a transition from school to home, and then back again the next morning from home to school. Instead, they brought home all the assertiveness, the aggressiveness, and the defensiveness that they had to use in school. I must say that my wife and I could not figure out what our children were angry about, why they were so assertive and defensive. So, I pulled myself out of the situation, neutralised myself, and looked at it to see where the fault was. Was it in me? I found the children were in a separate world and did not know how to make a transition into the trust of our home.

This has happened in the life of almost everyone in the western world: your school, work, and political relationships are ones of high competitiveness. This constant watching out for your self-interest is brought into your personal relationships also. Recognise this fact and you will be a changed person, making a transition from your work and school relationships into your personal relationships. You have to recognise this fact that the values of the professional, economic and political society are ones of polarisation in which confrontation is a virtue, where being able to take care of yourself is what counts and where the fittest survive. You have formed mental habits along these thought patterns; created a psychological bondage and you express your emotions in those terms. You must remember that when you enter the gate, the doors of your house, literally or figuratively, you have to become the person you were as a child: defenceless, loving and trusting in your relationships. There is no other way. Otherwise, one confrontation leads to another and that one leads to the third one. Before you know it, the relationship has fallen apart. And then what? You fall apart.

People say, “But it is so difficult. It is so difficult to follow the advice you are giving.”

Whenever they say this, I ask one question, ‘Tell me what is easy? Is the present way of relationships easier? You are scared of things the way they now are. Try a new approach. If your present way is easy, then why are you here?’

Some people say, “But how do I make the transition. It’s easy for someone to say, ‘Don’t be afraid.’ But what do I do?”

You must learn to recognise the divine presence within you, that divine presence which you experience in moments of meditation. Some of you say, “I don’t experience anything, so where do I find this divine presence?” But you do. If someone were to say to you right now, “You are sitting in the light,” would you have otherwise realised that you are sitting in a light? Were you thinking about that fact? No, you take the light for granted; that is human nature. We always take divine things and things of light for granted. You never think they are remarkable, but the divine is part of your inner nature. When a little quietness comes to you, you say, “Oh that’s nothing remarkable,” because your nature is rediscovering itself. No matter how shallow a meditation you have, if you look you will find that you always come out of your meditation just slightly quieter than when you sat down. This means that you did experience some higher-presence, a state of consciousness beyond what you are involved with in the ordinary world. Take the optimistic view.

I said to my spiritual teacher some years ago over the phone, ‘I want to make progress towards freedom, and I want to be an enlightened being, but there seems to be two of me. There is one who stands up, gives good advice to everyone, and conducts meditations and so on. I am very happy when I am in that place. Then there is this other one of me that comes home and gets upset because my wife did not put enough salt in the dal. What do I do with this other one?”

He said, ‘Identify the divine aspect within you. Don’t identify with that person who quarrels, who gets upset and who is angry. Identify with your highest moments, those moments when you gave love, when you succeeded in bringing a smile. Know that you have that strength. Know that at that moment you did have that courage. Identify with that courageous one.’

Perhaps you have given love, shown strength and courage and nothing came of it. But then, when you fought, when you defended, when you were aggressive, when you wrote a 10-page letter full of poison, what happened? Go back to the moment that gave you the pleasure of trusting, the pleasure of having caused a smile, and of having given someone satisfaction. The origin of the word love is founded on the idea of pleasing-to have a pleasant mind, and to be pleasing and to give pleasure. Do that thing that brings out a smile in the other person. Don’t pursue that which upsets him or her and avoid that; it’s a negative effort. Instead, find out what pleases the other person, what gives him or her pleasure and what brings on a smile, and start with that.

Editor’s Note

This is an extract from Path to Successful Relationships by Swami Veda Bharati, pages 55-57.

Gather the most beautiful flowers of this earth, filling your hands with white, red, yellow, and blue flowers and place them at the Lord’s feet with both hands cupped.

Gather the fruits of all the actions you have sown in the past. Fill your hands with these fruits and surrender them at the Lord’s feet. Henceforth you have no more claims to the fruits of your actions.

And as you gaze at the compassionate smiling luminous, radiant Face, your own being is forgotten, your being is lifted to dwell at the light in the heart. And with this Presence in the Heart exhale and inhale for it is the Christ Spirit who breathes within you And what little is left of you, with that little let that Name flow with your breathing from the Heart Center upwards and back to the Heart Center. Let each breath become an offering to the Father, to the Mother of the universe.

The Christ-spirit now rises from the Cave of your Heart. A Being of Transfigured Light and Illumination fills your entire person, and there is nothing in you that is not of the Christ Spirit. Thus you are made Immortal. Thus you are made one with Infinity. Let the spirit breathe, Exhaling, inhaling. And let that Name fill the entire Sky, from the Heart Center through the throat center to the Heavens in your skull and all the Spaces in the whole universe that dwell within you, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, asking for nothing, joyful that your Spirit can sing with each breath.

And now even the name, Jesus, subsides, and there remains only the quiet peace of the Presence of the Christ Spirit, which is Infinity passing through you. Simply dwell here in absolute silence. And if the silence must be interrupted, let it be interrupted only by that one Name, rising from the Skies of the Heart to the Heavens in your Mind.

And once more be aware of the illumination of the Christ Spirit, flowing through your whole person, a Pure Flame in your Heart, as through a Sun rising in your skull, as though your breath stream flows as twin Beams of Light, as though Beams of Healing Light are flowing from your fingertips, your entire being surrounded by an aura of Light, beams of light flowing from your fingers, a Flame in your heart, a brilliant Sun inside your Mind, your breath: twin beams of light.

Dwell in the silence of this Illumination, enjoying the practice of the Presence of the Divine Being.

And without breaking the awareness of your breathing, continuing to call upon the Divine spirit with your whole being by that one name, know that your face is luminous with the light of the Universal Guru Spirit, the Christ spirit.

Once upon a time two blood cells in a person’s body each developed into a genius. One became an inspired mystic and philosopher while one became a cynical scientist. The blood cell that had become a mystic stood by the walls of an artery and announced, “Fellow cells, harken! I must share with you a great vision I have been granted. We are not all apart, each cell having a separate life of its own. There is a great omnipresent being whose life force we share, from whom we are born, in whom we dwell, and into whom we each finally dissolve. Though the individual cell may die, life continues in that great being. That great one is so vast that billions of us all cannot fathom his greatness. None of us can comprehend all his thoughts, knowledge and action. This being is called man.”

The blood cell that had become a scientist scowled and jeered and taunted, challenging the mystic, and saying, “What a visionary you are, talking without proof! Where is this great being you call man? Look around you, fellow cells, do you see any such being? Mr. Mystic, can you show us this man?”

Is there any way the blood cells in that artery can see man? Could they imagine human activities such as writing this book or reading it? But even though each cell has a little life of its own, they all share collectively, by a thread unknown to them, in the life force of the person in whom they are joined. So it is with our individual lives in God.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from God by Pandit Usharbudh Arya, 1979, page 92.

Pandit Usharbudh Arya became Swami Veda Bharati, and the author of the book is sometimes listed as Swami Veda Bharati.

November 24th, 2013

Welcome to all. Thank you for being here for this miniature sangha gathering.  It makes me feel warm all over.

Surrender your seat to the Guru.

Count your breaths for 3 minutes. When counting your breaths and doing any breath awareness practice, observe with care that there is no pause between the breaths.There are many advanced teachers and mantra initiators here. Do take advantage of their presence and direct your questions to them. They are going to get bored by my very elementary course.

Purpose of the course: Many people remain confused about how to use such enormous materials we have available. Many are not even aware of what is available and how to use it. Swami Rama started teaching in USA in 1969; this is 44 years of teaching and publication. There is the need to sort out the materials and use them.

A kalyana mitra is who? I have intentionally not used the word TEACHER. Some people say: I am not interested in being a teacher. Others say, oh, I have already done my teacher training!! A brother is a kalyana mitra, a neighbor, parents, children, school teacher.

Anyone on the street who helps you in guidance or whom you help.  Both for your benefit and for those for whom you are serving as kalyana mitra.

We need to create a worldwide kalyana mitra system. All kalyana mitras, are noble friends on the path.
Because in the teaching you are moved by compassion (karuna), you want to reduce the suffering of all living beings. So you offer yourself as kalyana mitra, a Noble Friend, to all:

1. Help them to the extent that your knowledge reaches.
2. Keep increasing your knowledge by way of
   1. sakshatkara, spiritual realization
   2. svadhyaya, self-study which is being guided.

We have announced the course as WHAT AFTER MANTRA, but many are not even aware as to WHAT BEFORE MANTRA. Many are receiving mantras without prior preparation. When you first want to introduce the path to someone, give him/her Swami Rama’s business card: the book Living with the Himalayan Masters. The company you are working for is the company of sages. This is the first book, it is a miracle book. I have heard of miracle stories about the book. Then go further to know about Swami Rama by reading:

1. Walking with a Himalayan Master by Justin O’Brien. Let our bookstore advise you how to obtain it or look up YES Publishers.
2. There are four volumes of At the Feet of a Himalayan Master, published by HIHT (our hospital). Here is the 4th volume [showing it to the people present].

Justin O’Brien’s book and the 4 volumes are optional. The business card is the most important.

I am busy working on two books:

• refining my first volume of the Yoga sutras
• writing the 3rd volume on Yoga sutras. The 3rd chapter of Yoga sutras is very complex. On Sutra 13 alone I have written 40 pages. The current sutra 17 will be 100 pages (on one sutra).

How many of you have read my Yoga sutra commentaries? Raise hands? 10-15 people. It cannot be understood without the mastery of Sankhya philosophy.

So, these are basic readings in preparation for mantra initiation:

1. Living with the Himalayan Masters
2. Superconscious Meditation – videos by Swami Rama, available from the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pennsylvania.
3. Superconscious Meditation – Swami Veda’s book
4. Night Birds – Swami Veda’s book. If that is too much reading, there are small booklets Beginning Meditation, Himalayan Tradition of Yoga Meditation (most people have not studied it)
5. Royal Path (used to be called Lectures on Yoga) – Swami Rama´s book. Some selections are important.

All teachers know the practicum preparations: relaxation (shavasana), diaphragmatic breathing (in makarasana, shavasana, sitting postures—and at all times, which most people neglect), nadi shodhana, breath awareness. Always encourage people to master these practices.

There are times when an initiator agrees to give a mantra initiation even without such a preparation. In that case, make sure that it is explained that immediately after receiving the initiation one will complete these readings and practicums. No mantra appointment without such a promise. For more information consult typescript on “what is initiation”.

Where should a person go from a place where there is no centre and no teacher of our tradition?

There are many options. I urge our lecturing teachers to explain these options.

Can you remember what happened at your mantra initiation? Many people ask what will happen at the initiation. So write out your own memory of it. Refresh it. And explain it.

Many people arrive for initiation and cannot sit properly. Make sure you make arrangements for them to learn to sit correctly. Many people, especially Indians, start reciting the mantra as soon as it is whispered into their ears. Please explain that mantra is for internal, inward, absorption only. It is not a chant that many Indians think and start chanting. Again, it is for inward absorption only: not using the mouth or tongue at all. These things should be explained by all kalyana mitras.

If there is time, some of the lecturers can go over as to what happens at initiation – what is the procedure?
FIRST, the initiator has been sitting for an hour meditation beforehand – many would-be initiates do not know that. Some start talking and asking questions. They have not been prepared.

Kalyana mitras are to facilitate the initiators’ tasks. At the time of initiation or soon after two recordings are given or sent as sound file or as CD.

• Recording of the initiation
• Guided meditation for mantra initiate that the initiate should follow as a regular procedure until such time that s/he no longer needs to listen to it.

Then, we always recommend a period of 24-36 hours of total silence and mantra-sadhana to start immediately upon initiation. If one has to go to a job or take care of children, then a period of such silence and intensive mantra-sadhana must be created even if later. Lecturers explain what the initiates do during these 24-36 hours of silence sadhana. We have a lot of audio material on SILENCE. The lecturers/initiators please select the minimum material the new initiate must have studied before coming for initiation. The more advanced material is for those who will do longer silence sadhana.

Please address your questions to the advanced teachers present here.

Take also the time to explain the daily practice to a beginner:

• Cleansing,
• Asanas,
• Relaxation,
• Establish diaphragmatic breathing,
• Nadi shodhana,
• Then TWO phases of meditation. One may spend whatever length of time at each phase:
  • Mantra with breath awareness with nostril flow. Some mantras are two long for one breath – the syllables may be divided into several breaths (without pause, without break).
  •  Mantra in mind alone. No use of mouth or tongue. Close with breath awareness.

Editor’s Note

Swamiji said during this lecture: “There are many advanced teachers and mantra initiators here. Do take advantage of their presence and direct your questions to them.” This advice extends beyond this seminar.

Swamiji asked, “How many of you have read my Yoga sutra commentaries?” Those commentaries are:

• Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: With the Exposition of Vyāsa: A Translation and Commentary, Volume I, Samādhi Pāda by Pandit Usharbudh Arya
• Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: With the Exposition of Vyāsa: A Translation and Commentary, Volume II, Sādhana Pāda by Swāmī Veda Bhāratī

We invite you to watch and read (click on title):

• How to Treat the Path of Superconscious Meditation by Swami Rama (video)
• Standard Reading List (Swami Veda Bharati is advising many who ask for guidance to use this list.)

In addition to Swami Veda, those designated to give mantra initiation within the AHYMSIN family include: Alexander Benjamin, Carolyn Hume, Helen Choe, Lalita Arya, Linda Billau, Michael Kissener, Nina Johnson, Pandit Hari Shankar Dabral, Rajah Indran, Raghavendra Adiga, Savitri Jugdeo, Shi Hong, Stephen (Stoma) Parker, Swami Ma Radha Bharati, Swami Nityamuktananda Saraswati, Swami Prashant Bharati, Swami Ritavan Bharati, Swami Tat Sat Bharati, Wolfgang Bischoff, and Yoong. We invite you to get to know them and let them get to know you.

Mother Divine has gifted us a beautiful world filled with colours. She also made our minds deeply and diversely colour-endowed.

Of these colours we harvest daily, and moment by moment but seldom celebrate.

But then, when we truly come to celebrating, oh what flames of colours light up our lives, minds, hearts.

I wish you a colours-lit whole year and all of the times beyond.

~ Swami Veda Bharati

Editor’s Note:

The Festival of Holi is celebrated on the Full Moon Day in March. In 2024, it will be on 24 & 25 March. You may listen to Swami Veda Bharati’s talk on the origins of this colorful festival at the below link.

Origins of Holi by Swami Veda Bharati (2006)

Draw yourself to yourself. Empty your mind of all things from sources outside you and look into your mind for a force that may be entirely yours. A body in meditation is totally relaxed. All muscles are limp, there is no twitching, no movement. The mind has no memories and, therefore, no anxieties. When the mind has no anxieties the breath flows evenly and smoothly. All the hollows of the mind are filled and there are no sharp edges. The brain becomes clear. The thoughts do not arise at random.

That evenness of the mind brings an evenness of emotions, and a quality of equilibrium develops in your personality. That equilibrium may last for a moment or two while in meditation, and initially that is so. But as your meditations prosper they begin to permeate your personality and through all your thoughts, words and physical deeds your natural equilibrium begins to show.

Drain all waters from the Pacific Ocean and fill them with liquid light — these are the unfathomable depths of our mind.

I wish you a dive into the depths of an ocean called consciousness, filled with light.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from The Light of Ten Thousand Suns by Swami Veda Bharati, page 68.