Category: Swami Veda Bharati

There are a fortunate few who leave the world with a vessel more full than the one with which they arrived.

The vessel of some gets so full that it spills its drops into the hearts and minds of all whom they touch.  Margo, Maya, is indeed one of those who spilled of her fullness and has carried a full vessel with her.  She leaves behind her, hearts and minds feeling fulfilled with the teachings she imparted by her personal presence and by her words and acts.

As the spiritual journeys go, on the one hand, it may have been several incarnations long but in this body I saw her moving steadily for more than three decades towards her goal of a more and more sattvic and purified being.  We should celebrate that she succeeded and along with that passed on generously a part of her success to so many in different parts of the world from North America to India, Korea, Hungary, Italy and many other countries in different Continents.

Birds leave no feather prints in the sky.  Fish leave no fin prints in the sea, but great purified ones leave their footprints in the form of imprints, samskaras, in the hearts and personalities of those who choose to listen to them.

A flower may wilt into dust, yes, dust to dust, but the honey bees have preserved its honey, the perfumer has saved its fragrance and in this subtler from the flower lives on.  So with the honey and fragrance of Margo’s teachings and imprints live on in the honeycombs of many souls and the vials of many hearts which she filled with her fragrance.

Grief is natural but a more fitting tribute to Margo is preserving the honey and fragrance.

As one Italian friend has written; the Master has carried her aloft.  She becomes one with the universe.  May her presence linger fresh and strong in the lives of those whom she loved and touched so selflessly. I invoke our Gurudeva to keep her in His bosom as long as their laws require it to be so but, then, we know that she will be back to grant teachings evermore.

Yours in Memoriam,
In Service of Gurudeva and his Disciples,
Swami Veda Bharati

Svabhava and Svarupa
A Satsang with Swami Veda, 5 June 2010, Singapore

We have made our mind a place of noise. Whenever we do something that is not natural to us, we are unhappy. When we are unhappy we should know that the unhappiness is a symptom of something we are doing that is not natural to us. Therefore, whenever we are unhappy we should dive into ourselves and discover, search and find, what is natural to us; what is not in our temporary nature. That which is not nature, which is habit. We must learn to distinguish between our nature and our artificially cultivated and formed habits.

Our true nature is beyond those habits. That we like something is a habit. That we dislike something is a habit. Habits change. Same things we liked once, we begin to dislike later. Something we dislike at first, we begin to like later. That shows that we are capable of changing our habits and we change our habits all the time.

I pause so that you can think over it, contemplate and look at yourself in the light of what I have said.

(Pause)

What I am referring to as our nature is something far below our habits, our habit-forming patterns. Not of the samskaras, the imprints we gathered from many lifetimes and this life.

Often when we make a statement and say, “This is the way I am,” whether we say it to others or we say it to ourselves, we reinforce thereby what we think we are. Actually. in those instances what we are referring to is not our nature but our conscious and unconscious habits. Our likes, dislikes, preferences, attractions, aversions, fear about something, anxiety about something, intense desire for some things. These are all mental habit patterns we have formed.

These are temporary. Some of these may last us a lifetime but they are still temporary. We may change them, we may not change them. They are still temporary.

When I refer to nature, I refer to that which is an intrinsic part of our being; which is perennial, eternal, from beginning-less times to endless times. That nature, being intrinsic, is not alterable. It is not mutable. It is forever that; it is our very being.

The meditator meditates to dive through the surface habits, to the depth where our nature, our Svabhava and Svarupa lie hidden.

In our philosophy we use these two words frequently. Svabhava – our own being. Our own intrinsic permanence of nature. Our own aspect that is not of learnt behavior. It simply “Is” and through that I simply “Am.” Svabhava, one’s own very being which is the word we use in our philosophy for nature. Our nature. The perennial nature which is ever sacred, satvic, serene, of true silence.

The other word which is often used in our philosophy is Svarupa. The word rupa means form, configuration. Form – like that of a body; configuration – like that of a face.

But we are also told that the consciousness principle – Purusha, Atman, the Self – that some prefer to translate as the very soul of our being, is arupa – formless. Then how can this arupa being formless, in the same philosophy, have a Svarupa, its own form? Here we are taught in the philosophy, that therefore Atman, the spiritual self, being Arupa, formless, is a Svarupa, its own form.

In Vedanta, they speak of Brahman, the Absolute Reality as:

Sat –  total, pure, perennial, eternal, absolute existence, being;
Chit – Consciousness, which has no antonym, no opposite in the Unconscious because it is total, pure, absolute, eternal, complete in itself, perfect;
Ananda – joy, bliss, which is not part of the duality of pain and pleasure, not a pleasure for which an opposite pain exists, but total, pure, the absolute, eternal.

Sat, Chit, Ananda.

So the great Shankaracharya asked a question. “We are repeatedly told that Brahman, the transcendent absolute, is Nirguna, beyond conditions, beyond qualities, beyond attributes. That being the case, are you not imposing the concept of attributes – Sat, Chit, Ananda, upon Brahman, the transcendent absolute?”

The answer given is that these are not conditions, qualities, attributes, gunas, being imposed upon the nirguna – Brahman. These are the very Svabhava and Svarupa of Brahman. The very being, the very nature, what you would call the very form, the very existence that is the nature of Brahman, Atman.

This ever-pure Nityashuddha; ever-wise, ever-enlightened Nityabuddha; ever-free, ever-liberated Nityamukta; ever-pure, ever-free, ever-wise and enlightened, ever-liberated, by nature – Svabhava.
Nitya, Shuddha, Buddha, Mukta, Svabhava.

Such a one becomes Jivatman, giving life to buddhi, mind, prana, and physical body. We begin to attribute the gunas, the qualities, conditions, attributes of the physical body, of prana, mind and Buddhi; we begin to attribute their conditions, qualities, attributes – to this Atman – becomes Jivatman, our individuated soul. But it never truly loses its nature.

Whatever we think we are at the moment and whatever terms we identify ourselves to the identification principle, Ahamkara. That kind of “we” lost in the maze, the tangled vines of the jungle of conditions of qualities, of attributes, of non-perennial temporary time-bound, space-bound, causation-enslaved habit patterns. This kind of “we.” Learn to dive into the depths of our true nature.

We call that meditation. We call that practicing stillness. We call that the practice of silence.

Through the interstices, in the tangles of our noises, we sometimes enter moments of silence. For that silence we sleep but in that sleep you are not aware of that silence. That silence which is not an emptiness, not an absence of noise alone but a stream of the serene silence that is a completeness, a fullness of Sat, Chit, Ananda; our very Svabhava and Svarupa.

Sat, chit, ananda – their plenitude, bhumau; their fullness, completeness, purnatwam. Total and perennial self-pacification – Shamau – expressed by the bija mantra, seed mantra – Om Sham. We learn to dive into that sea of silence that is our nature – Svabhava, Svarupa.

It is not of forming a new habit pattern. It is of eliminating, erasing, deleting, the time-bound, the space-bound; the time-bound, the space-bound, the causation-enslaved habit patterns. For someone who has rediscovered, who has re-dis-covered his once atman’s nitya, shuddha, buddha, mukta, svabhava; who has reawakened, re-awakened to his once Atman’s sat, chit, ananda’s, Svarupa. He thereby knows that the ever-disturbing noises of the surface mind, are not his own. They are of the superimpositions of what is our non-nature. Knowing this he dwells ever in silence, even while teaching, singing, dancing, letting the senses do their duties. But he remains a non-doer, an absolutely still point in the centre of all riotous commotions.

When you will walk the world with this awareness of your Svabhava and Svarupa, these habit patterns, these noises of the mind, these riotous commotions around you, will no longer be your masters. They will become your instruments, wield your servants to command. And you – the transcendent, the absolute.

Go into that silence for now. (Silence)

Om Sham.
Thank you all

In studying the subject of yoga-nidra we need to be clear as to which state or level of yoga-nidra we are (1) discussing, (2) scientifically experimenting,(3) personally practising.

State One

State one is a state of deep relaxation. Very commonly these days the term yoga-nidra is used for the processes/exercises preparatory to yoga-nidra. These are often also being taught by many teachers in a fragmentary manner.

There are many different such preparations in complete sets, each exercise fitting at a certain place in the sequence in the set.

During these practices the brain produces alpha waves which in higher exercises then verge on theta.

These higher exercises may also be used for self-healing.

State Two

State two is an interim state between One and Three. Used for creativity, invention, ‘receiving’ decisions and solutions to problems, composing lectures and research papers and poetry and constitutions or minutely detailed action plans — and such other purposes. Here the brain produces theta sometimes verging onto delta.

State Three

In state three the preparations taught in State One lead to the true yoga-nidra, entry into abhava-pratyaya, cognition of negation (Yoga-sutra 1.10) in a cave in the heart centre.

This may require an advanced teacher initially leading the aspirant into this depth. Swami Rama of the Himalayas recommends that one not remain in this state more then ten minutes at a time.

During this state the brain may initially produce theta and then, in depth, go into delta waves. Here the yogi is in deep non-REM sleep, so far as the brain wave activity shows, but is aware of his surroundings.

State Four

State four is not limited to a ten minute experience. It is the kind of sleep that yogis sleep even up to three and half hours. Here the mind simultaneously remains at two levels: (I) One layer of the mind in sleep in the ordinary sense of the word, and (II) a deeper layer of the mind remaining in conscious a-japa japa and meditation which, here, is awareness of the person-wide awareness of kundalini. Some yogis take half of their sleep in the common sense of the word and the other half in this level of yoga-nidra. Here one may alternate between theta and delta.

One who practices such sleep may remain looking younger than his/her years.

Only when the States One and Three are fully mastered, one will learn to glide into the State Four.

Turiya : When States Three and Four have been mastered, one is at the gates of turiya and may slide into it. Then, not earlier, yoga-nidra becomes turiya, the two becoming indistinguishable; brain wave becomes a flat rate.

Cosmic Yoga Nidra

On the cosmic yoga-nidra of  Being, at another time.

See also “Yoga Nidra – Methods of Conscious Sleep” for a working definition.

Satsang with German group, 31 March 2000 at Swami Veda Bharati’s Cottage

Yoga is so vast

Q. There are some schools of meditation that neglect or even fully reject to do yoga asanas and to do pranayama. Are they also to be called yoga, or have something to do with the yoga? For example, the Tibetan don’t do asanas as I got to know, and some of the other schools also reject asanas or pranayama.

A. All these are all partial statements. Because yoga is so vast that it is not possible for any one person or for any one school to practice all of the yoga. No individual, no school. So that each individual or disciple is given, by a Master, the part that he can easily manage and pass on. And that becomes a school. But the total picture of yoga includes all of these systems. It is not true that in Tibetan tradition there is no physical asanas. These are all partial statements. There is a very strong physical element in Tibetan-Buddhist practice. For example, before one is given the first high initiation one has to do 125,000 prostrations with a mantra. And so each prostration is like a Surya namaskara. 125,000 repetitions with each going down and coming up, going down and coming up; before you are given the first initiation. The entire Japanese meditation system is linked to their practice of martial arts and that requires a great deal of physical preparation.

The same applies to the question of yoga in action. ‘Is yoga in action, or is yoga withdrawl from action into meditation?’ Whether yoga is in action or a withdrawl from action into meditation. And the answer is that it is both. While you are in the world of action, performing those actions meditatvely is yoga, when you have risen above the bond of karma, then it is not even a withdrawl because there is no action.

When we say that in that higher state there is no action, we do not mean there is no motion. People living in the world, think of motion as action. The highest yogi moves his body without incurring the karmic effects. So that for him it is actionlessness, but not motionlessness. In the eyes of others he is still performing actions, because they think that motion is action. When we use the word action in the sense of karma, we mean “that which becomes attached to us”. A yogi performing actions for the benefit of the world, so that he does not incur any karmic debts.

And when while we are in the world of action, we should also gradually learn to perform the actions the same way that we perform the actions, but we do not incur the karmic debts. For example, if you take from the planet only what is your personal share and no more, then you are not incurring karmic debt. When you take more than your personal share then you incur karmic debt. When you take from someone in a relationship, more than you are giving to him, then you are in debt. And if you are giving more than you are receiving then you are not in debt.  So these are basic principles of meditation in action. It is called action in in-action and in-action in action.

Vairagya

Q. Can you say something about vairagya? I want to practice, but it is difficult.

A. If vairagya is difficult, then it is not vairagya. If I find it difficult to give this to you, then it is not a giving. I have love for myself and I would like to keep this diamond. When my love for you is such that I value a diamond as a gift, then it is not difficult to give.

Vairagya is not abandoning the world. Vairagya is loving something else. When you fall in love with one person whom you are going to marry, you do not make a list of all the others whom you will not be marrying. And it is not difficult for you to not marry them. So when you have such love for God, then saying “I am not interested in the world, you don’t even have to say it. Any one of those millions of people whom you have not married, you meet, you are kind, you are courteous, you are friendly, you are affectionate. Your marrying someone is not a negative act against anybody else. Otherwise all those other people would not celebrate your wedding. So, that is vairagya. You had a small diamond, then you saw a big one, so you went back, you paid some extra price, you gave the small diamond back and you got a larger one. Cultivate the love for that which is our higher goal. And everything else goes away like a child’s toy. A ten-year old child now has total vairagya toward the toy with which he played with when he was four. And that is not difficult for him, because you have something larger.

Emotional Purification

Q. Can you talk a little bit about emotional purification, what it is and how to do it?

A. Take all the actions you have performed in the last one hour, with your body, with your speech and with your mind. See how many of those acts were acts of love for others, without seeking anything in return and that will show you how emotionally pure you are. If those thoughts, words and actions were centered on you, then the feelings you had around them were not pure ones. If they were centered around yourself, then they were not pure feelings. So a person on the spiritual path, checks his entire pattern in all of these three areas of actions. First the person works on the mental part, then on the speech and actions. ‘How self-centered am I?’ ‘Am I thinking all the time about myself, what is going to happen to me?’ ‘Am I going to get something from such and such person, am I not going to?’

Then the second step is; ‘In this particular thought or speech pattern or action there would have been two ways, two possibilities, I could have chosen an unselfish loving way and I could have chosen the selfish unloving way. Which one did I actually choose? Well, I know that I should have chosen the unselfish loving one, but I just didn’t feel like it.’

Slowly you train your mind to incline towards, naturally incline towards choosing the non-self centered thoughts, words and actions. Mother is sitting down to eat her dinner after a long day and here comes in the child and has an immediate need. What does she choose? She forgets the food in front of her and she takes care of her child. That is a pure emotion. When you become Mother to the whole universe, then you are emotionally pure. There is no struggle about it. You just do it naturally. You feel that that is the only response possible from you. Then you look at all different little things that you do, that you speak, that you acquire, that you use. You just look.

Culture also plays a great part in it. We are sitting here and talking about pure emotions. But what does our culture teach us? Is it teaching us to solve our problems with a fight, with an aggression, or is it teaching us to solve our problems by bending down and not resisting, and finding our way around the rock, instead of calling for a bigger hammer and smashing the rock? When you have learned the art of pure emotion, then there are very few resistances left in the world against you. When you do not resist then others do not resist you. It is the first step that is difficult, because the first step requires this trust. You say, ‘how can I trust, I have been hurt so many times.’ The times that you were hurt, can you say that you had no expectations? This time try without any expectation. The trust is not trust in somebody else. The trust is the trust in your love, the trust in the power of your love, your own trust in yourself. It is like the parents, that yes, they trust themselves with the thought of having another child. So examine all your cultural conditioning and as I said, last one hours actions, words and above all, your thoughts. And remember that when you do not resist, others do not resist you.

Trusting the power of your love is the difficult part. Just for the first time. Once you have done it, then you say, ‘oooh, I didn’t know I could do it, and it worked’. Try it with the next interpersonal problem you have to deal with it. Dont be afraid. Okay?

(A guided meditation preceded the lecture.)

May the peace mind of the universe fill your personal mind.  God bless you.

Eternity to be packed in forty five minutes, no problem, it can be packed into one trillionth of a second if we know how to enter the consciousness of one trillionth of a second and that is what the yogis have done for thousands of years of the history of this earth.

Yoga Is Much Misunderstood

Yoga is much misunderstood. When I first came to Minnesota in 1967 I borrowed the use of the basement of one of my Sanskrit students as I was teaching at the Department of East Asian Studies. It was a spacious basement and we announced a class on yoga. So the first evening the place was full. There must have been a hundred and fifty people packed in that basement or more. The boring speaker that I am, in the following week on Thursday, there were fifteen students because I did not know that in this culture yoga meant doing postures.  I did not know that.  So I walked in with my book of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and starting expounding the whole philosophy and they said what kind of yoga is that?  We didn’t do any postures.

So I am here to clear these misinterpretations of yoga.  Yoga, as one progresses in it, gives you many benefits.  Yes, you have less headaches.  Yes, you can manage your stress.  Yes, it will help you with your high blood pressure.  Yes, it will help you cope.  What else does yoga do?  The yoga that I talk about is not what you are doing in the yoga spas.  I have no quarrel with that, but that is not even the tip of the iceberg.

What Were They Doing?

Yoga of calmness, of mind, observing the mind.  Mind’s unruly stormy waves calming down and becoming an even flowing stream.  These are just the first steps but what was Jesus doing forty days in the wilderness?  What was Zarathustra doing ten years sitting in the cave?  What was Mohammed doing in the cave of Hira?  What was the Buddha doing sitting absolutely still under the bodhi tree for forty nine days and forty nine nights?  What were they doing?  It is that yoga to which I want to draw your attention.

Are You Ambitious Enough?

Someone sat under a tree for forty nine days and forty nine nights, and pilgrims from all over the world go to see that tree and possibly bring one fallen leaf from there to their home because somebody sat twenty six centuries ago under that tree for forty nine days and forty nine nights absolutely still.  Are you ambitious enough?  I think right in this hall once I spoke on meaning of ambition.  Are you ambitious enough to sit absolutely still with a becalmed mind for forty nine minutes?  Forty nine seconds?  That is the ambition I want the yoga students to have.  To obtain that calm flow of the stream of consciousness for forty nine seconds.  Once you have had those forty nine seconds you will never forget them.  Those forty nine seconds stand between you and your true ambition.  Once you have actually experienced those forty nine seconds you’ll look forward to the next time you can have the calm flow of the stream of consciousness for forty nine, maybe this time fifty one seconds.  Progress.

Changes Occur

As you walk on the path of yoga changes occur in you.  First you realize, you begin to realize that there is something changeable in you, and changes occur in you.  Your body language changes.  There is no more uncertainty in your body language.  There’s no more demonstration of conflict in your body language.  One shoulder this way, one shoulder that way.  That will stop.  Neck sometime this way, sometime that way, sometime that way, sometime that way.  That will change.  Your body language will become balanced.  That change occurs.

I have here somewhere a secret Himalayan herbal cream.  Rub that everyday.  You will have less wrinkles on your face.  It’s an invisible cream and it’s for free.  The less wrinkles form on your face as you progress spiritually.  That change occurs.

You become more and more a neutral observer of events.  Events in your body, events in your surroundings so that you become a neutral observer of your own illnesses and pains and thereby you learn the art of self healing.  These are just a few examples I am giving.

The more someone scowls the more you smile.  That change occurs in you.  Your voice becomes softer and therefore more effective because it invokes the response of a yes from the listener.  Just yoga postures in the spa will not give you that.  It’s a start, some sort of a start.  You become less prone to anger, more prone to compassion.  You begin to take the side of your opponent and explain your opponent to others.  You begin to explain your opponent to others.

Duets of Harmony

I have a little book titled Sayings, and in that I have a chapter.  All the sentences in that chapter begin with “be naughty.”  One of the sentences is: be naughty.  Holding a public office, write a series of articles criticizing all your policies anonymously or under a pseudonym and publish the articles.  Chuckle when the opponents quote the articles against you.  The first Prime Minister of independent India was known to have done that.  He wrote a whole series of articles in the press criticizing all his policies under a pseudonym.  It was very well written with all proofs and arguments and the opposition benches came waving the article.  Mr. Prime Minister, have you read this article, this series of articles?  Later it was found out that he was the writer.  That and Nehru’s habit of doing a head stand daily are a connected event.  He turned the world upside down.  You look at the world from the opposite angle because as the duels in your mind become less noisy more and more they become duets of harmony.  That is one of the symptoms of doing yoga.  The yoga that we are teaching in the Himalayan tradition or the yoga the Tibetan yogis are teaching or the yoga that my friends the Sufis are teaching.  It is that yoga to change the duels of conflict of your mind to duets of harmony.  These are changes that occur in you.

No End

I can go on, and there is no end as I have observed my own journey.  I don’t know if I have made any progress but journey.  As I observe the progress of my student yoga practitioners, these are the changes I observe.  Your language changes.  That is to say, the sense in which you use the words before you now use them in a very different sense.  As you might have noticed in the yoga circles, this also has happened.  Two practitioners meet, and one asks the other “Do you sit? “and you know what that means, “Do you sit for your daily meditation?” The meaning of the word has changed.

As you progress in this yoga, you become a person of fewer words.  Softer voice and fewer words because in fewer words you express more, more effectively at a softer tone.  When I meet students who ask for teaching, I look for these symptoms.  Whether someone is making progress or not making progress.  How much do they fidget when they are sitting in front of me.  That’s what I look for.  That is what any meditation master or a small teacher like myself looks for.

Intuition

As you make spiritual progress, you will learn without having to learn.  You will learn without having to learn how to transcend intellect and go take a short cut to intuition.  Many, many years ago I gave a lecture at the World Trade Center Rotterdam in Holland to the CEO’s of the information industry on the subject of intuition.  You can obtain a CD of that.  What exactly is intuition?  Learn to take short cuts across intellect.

The knowledge just flashes and you can take a whole lifetime explaining in words what you experienced, what you saw in that one second flash.  That is called intuition.  It is not arrived at by the processes of syllogisms.  It does not arise from the intellectual surfaces of the mind.  There is another place in you.  The modern psychology studies problematic mind.  It has done very little study on the areas of the mind that are non problematic but someday I will speak about that.

I have this funny habit of walking to my lectures with fat books hoping to speak from them, and I never get to touch them.  They just sit there and they go back and everybody says why do you bring it?  So I was going to read you something from the Upanishads but there is only so much time.  Let me continue.

Look for these changes in you.  With that intuitive knowledge, your visions of times, spaces and realities expand vastly.  You become incapable of thinking in terms of ethnicities, religions, groups, nations, opponents.  You become incapable of thinking.  Someday a thousand years or ten thousand years from now after sadly speaking, really sadly speaking when I look into the future after the humanity has suffered a lot more unfortunately, very sadly, because you are choosing to run humanity that way, in that direction.  Someday a thousand years or ten thousand years from now will come a time when wisdom will prevail.  There will be no names for religions.  There will only be paths and philosophies of self realization.  There will be no names for counties, there will only be administrative units and geographical features named.  I cry when I think about it in my meditations.

Sow the Seeds

That time is very far away but you all can begin to sow the seeds for that time by making personal spiritual progress and maybe a thousand years or ten thousand years from now when you reincarnate you will have the power to bring about that change.  Have that ambition.  Do you have that ambition?  If not in this life, then in the life a thousand years from now you will have the spiritual force to bring about that change.  You make the resolve now.  Realize it slowly.

Practice of Meditative Yoga and Knowledge

To a meditator, all sciences come easily, because he draws, he takes a short cut to knowledge and dips into the intuition.  Not many people know that long before these modern  telescopes the yogis in their texts wrote of, spoke of, taught their disciples the vision of reality where the smallest moment in time is kshana, micro moment and that smallest unit of time is defined in the ancient texts of two thousand five hundred-three thousand years ago as the time it takes an atom, a minute atomic particle to traverse it’s own length.  There were no electron microscopes at that time.

The entire literature of Hindu, Jaina, Buddhist India and Asia doesn’t speak of this one planet.  A hundred and forty earth type planets have been discovered through these radio telescopes today.  It doesn’t come to me as any kind of exciting news because I grew up with those texts of Sanskrit language written by the yogis speaking of anata koti Brahmana, countless myriad universes.  Those were my lessons from Sanskrit texts at the age of five, six and seven.  Countless myriad universes being born, being dissolved, being born, being dissolved.  Time spans of billions of years.

Even now millions of Hindu priests when they perform their ceremonies, perform a wedding or funeral rites or anything, they recite the date on which it is being performed and they recite this vision of the universe.  They start with these uncountable myriad universes in our particular universe, in this particular solar system.  Then they come down to this planet, and then they come down to the space between two rivers at this spot.  Then they recite the time, the date.  If you look at Hindi newspapers, Hindi newspapers or Tamil newspapers, the date of the newspaper takes a four line paragraph.  What is the location of the Jupiter, what is the location of the Saturn, what is the location of the Mars?  Which date?

Even now the culture continues, and when the priests recite the date, one billion, nine hundred and forty million, fifty thousand and six or fifty thousand and eight, something like that is the date of the current creation era of this planet.  This has been recited this way for the last thousands of years.  They recite the date in billions of years and have done so for thousands of years because the dates were given by the yogis and are calculated on the basis of the texts of astronomy composed by the yogis.

Only a meditation master could have come up with the concept of zero, and what is the Sanskrit word for zero?  Do you know?  Shunya.  The basic of Buddhist philosophy, that is the word for zero in mathematics.  This was just by the way.  What I’m saying is through the practice of meditative yoga these changes will occur in you, and your concepts and visions of times, spaces and reality will vastly expand into infinity, and you will see everything, everything, every event in the context of infinity.  That is it. Five minutes before six, even that is seen in the context of infinity.

Loneliness

These changes occur.  To one in whom these changes have occurred could be a very lonely person.  Right, because nobody will understand his language.  Am I lonely?  There was a time in my life when I used to get sad and lonely.  Now I try to catch that moment, I can’t.  It has dropped off.  I don’t know where.  I don’t want to trace back my journey and look for where I dropped my loneliness. Is it here somewhere?

Loneliness is where there is two.  Fear is where there are two. dhyad vaybhyam bhavati.  The Upanishad says fear arises from the concept of a second, from the concept of an other, but for one for whom it is all single delititude there is no other and there is no loneliness.  The loneliness being in the entire universe must be God.  He has no companion.  Is he lonely?  Is he a lonely God?  Haven’t read that in any scripture of the world.  Whatever you want to define as God consciousness, as that consciousness grows in you, your loneliness drops.  Your fear drops, your concept of their being an opponent drops.  Your concept of there being an opponent drops, and on these grounds you test your spiritual progress.

Mind

I have recently written a book, it is not yet published, titled Mind, The Playground of Gods.  This poor much maligned mind is always suffering something, always causing trouble or so you think, but in the Vedas, in the ancient Vedas, we have hymns extolling the beauty of mind.  Someday I’ll recite those hymns for you.  Hymns to the mind.  It is that mind with which a yogi identifies himself or herself.

I have said this many, many times, all your disturbances are on the surface of the mind as the healing waves are on the surface of the ocean, but a diver dives and twenty feet below it’s absolute silence.  From fifty feet below, he looks up to the surface and the boat from which he had jumped is bobbing up and down like anything, and the people sitting in that boat who do not know how to dive are scared that they might fall over to the place where the diver is enjoying the silence of the depth of the sea.  That is the relationship between the yogi and the non-yogi.  The yogi dwells in the depth, looks up, the boats are still bobbing up and down and people in those boats are still living in fear, but he is neutral and compassionate.  That is why he teaches.  The teaching is done out of that helpless sense of compassion, helpless.  One cannot help it.  If a child crying with hunger, a mother cannot help but lift up the child and give the child her breast.  A meditation master or a small time meditation teacher like myself cannot help but sit here and share this with you.

So how about once again, I’m right on time. Instead of the earlier twenty minutes we took four minutes and from now please go with these ambitions about yourself.  Just free your hands of all your possessions.  Don’t take notes just put away everything.  Put away your pens and papers.  Make a mental note.  Simply bring your awareness to yourself.

Let your forehead relax. 

I’m sorry the figure I gave you was not one billion, nine hundred and forty million.  It’s supposed to be one billion, nine hundred seventy.

Practice This Often

Coming back,  relax your forehead.  Calm mind.  Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils.  Let the entire mind flow in your breath.  Breathing out gently, slowly, smoothly, without a break breathing in.  Breathing out think in your mind one.  Breathing in think two.  Breathing out one.  Breathing in two.  Continue to feel the breath in the nostrils.  Maintaining the count of one and two without a break.  Maintain the awareness of the flow with the count.  Without breaking the flow observe your entire mind becoming an even flowing stream.  Without breaking the flow gently open your eyes.  Let all your consciousness remain a calm flowing stream even with your eyes open.

Practice this often.  I wish you success in obtaining forty nine seconds of absolute stillness under a tree between now until we meet next year.  God bless you all.  Thank you.

*****

Swami Veda Bharati

University of Minnesota

Signs of Meditative Progress

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

August 4, 2010

Diane Steven’s Letter

Swamiji’s Request

Diane’s Reply

Golden Nuggets

1. To understand the process of Japa, understand different layers of the mind.
2. Japa begins when the mantra becomes pure thought in the mind.

Section 1 -Understanding the Mind

What is Mind? • It is a shakti kshetra (energy field), a field of energy; closest of the form of Prakriti (matter)

What is the function of Mind?

• Mind is the link between consciousness and the physical personality
• Through Mind one goes beyond annamaya (anatomical body), pranamaya (vital body) and reaches Atman / Purusha (Spiritual self)

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji : Mind is a shakti kshetra, a field of energy, an energy field like all other energy fields. like electric energy field, magnetic energy field, there is a particular energy field called ‘the mind’. It is the subtlest energy field in the Universe and closest of the form of Prakriti, matter, to atman or purusha. Those who have studied Samkhya shastra, Samkhya philosophy, will understand. Those who have read the Tattva Samasa Sutra and Yoga Sutra will understand.

Mind is the link between consciousness and the physical personality. It is the link between consciousness of purusha, and prana and annamaya and all other forms of prakriti or matter. It is through the mind that one goes beyond annamaya, beyond pranamaya, through manas, buddhi, chitta, and ahamkara and then reaching Atman, or Purusha.)

Understanding Meditation requires understanding the nature of mind that consists of:

• Manas – Active mind
• Buddhi – Faculty of wisdom
• Citta – Entire mind field
• Ahamkara – That by which we identify our being

Characteristics of Mind

• Mind has no size and no form of its own
• It takes the form of whatever is presented to it by way of the senses
• Mind is vast and deep, like an ocean
• Mind fills the entire Universe
• Mind is a wave in the mind-ocean of the Universe

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji: If you want to understand meditation, you need to understand the nature of mind, the nature of antahkarana, the inner instrument which consists of manas, active mind; buddhi, the faculty of wisdom, chitta, the entire mind field in which also the samskaras, vasanas, karmashaya are located. Ahamkara, that by which we identify our being, that ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’.

I repeat that in order to understand meditation, it is absolutely necessary to understand the nature of the mind. What mind is, how mind functions and what we do with the mind through our kriyas, practices of meditation. Mind – I repeat – is a shaktikshetra, an energy field, which has the highest frequency vibration of all the energy fields in the Universe. Ajiram, Javishtham; the most agile and the speediest.

Now the next step in our understanding. To understand the kriyas, the practices of meditation, it is essential that you understand the different levels, the different layers of the mind. Mind has no size and no form of its own, no fixed form of its own. It takes the form of whatever is presented to it by way of the senses or by way of samskaras and vasanas. Mind is vast and deep, like an ocean. The mind fills the entire Universe. Your mind is a wave in the mind-ocean of the Universe. Your mind is a wave in the vast ocean of the mind of the Universe.)

Understanding the Practices of Meditation requires understanding the different levels and layers of the mind

• At Surface Level – Active in the Kshipta (disturbed state opposite of one pointed), Mudha (state of stupefaction) and Vikshipta (distracted from meditative state) states
• At Deeper Level – Ekagra (one-pointed) and Nirodha (fully controlled) States

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji: Next step to understand. Mind is many levels, many layers. At each level, at each layer, it operates and functions differently. At the surface level that you experience, it is active in the kshipta, mudha and vikshipta states. From there you have to rise or dive deep into the ekagra and nirodhah states. I repeat. At each level, each layer, the mind operates and functions differently. If you understand the mind, you understand all your impulses, all your desires, all your wishes, dreams, wakeful states, sleep state. You will understand memory. How to remember, how to memorize sacred texts or how to remember anything else. And if you understand different layers, different levels of the energy field called the mind, you understand different kriyas, practices of meditation. Because the kriyas, the practices of meditation are in different layers and levels of the energy field of the mind. If you understand these layers and levels of the mind, you will understand how knowledge comes to you. Knowledge that you introduce from outside and the knowledge that comes to the yogi and the rishi from inside the chaitanya, from inside the consciousness. When you understand this system – all the levels of mind – you will know how to memorize things, you will know how to receive knowledge from within, as a shakshatkara, as a realization, from chaitanya, from consciousness principle.)

Section 2 – Process of Japa

1. Annamaya (physical), Pranamaya (organic), Manomaya (emotional/mental), Vijnanamaya (intellectual/discriminative), and Anandamaya (blissful) koshas (sheath) are all interlinked
2. States of annamaya and pranamaya are being fed into mind at all times
3. Any kind of tension – physical body or Prana (life force) body, gets transmitted into the Mind
4. Learn prayatna shaithilya (Relaxation of effort ) to settle your Mind in your Japa. Remember any jerk in breath jerks the Mind

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji: I have said this actually to explain the process of japa. You cannot understand the process of japa without understanding different layers of the mind. Many of our sadhakas, practitioners, are still doing their japa by moving the tongue. One of the purposes of khechari is to tuck the tongue away so that you are not doing the shallow japa of words of the mantra.

Your japa begins when your mantra becomes pure thought in the mind. I gave you this one minute to make your mantra pure thought in the mind. Now understand that your annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha, anandamaya kosha are all interlinked. And the states of your annamaya and pranamaya (physical body and prana body) the states of these are all the time being fed into your mind, so that if your body, neuromuscalature, nerves and muscles, are tense, they are sending tension messages into the mind. Mind is becoming tense and mind is then travelling to all different areas of thoughts, memories, and experiences.

Part of the reason that your mind does not settle in your japa is because you have not yet learned prayatna shaithilya, relaxation of effort. Your body is still tense. As a result of the tension in the body your breath is jerky, which experience of jerkiness of the breath is also fed back into the mind and the mind becomes jerky and travels around in jerks, all over the world.)

To do one mala of a Mantra in shorter time

1. Learn to relax muscles and nerves as taught in the Yogi Parampara (tradition, lineage)
2. Slow your breath and make it dirgha (long), sukshma (subtle), nairantarya (continuous) and without virama (pause)
3. Let Mantra thought come like a wave and become pure thought in the mind

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji: So for japa, this relaxation of effort is important. A smooth, gentle flow of the breath is important. For which you have to train yourself. Train yourself to abhyasa, abhyasa, abhyasa, which many of our sadhakas are not doing. So the japa remains at a shallow level. Some people take 45 minutes to do one mala of Gayatri. Some take 25 minutes, some take 15 minutes, some take 7 minutes and some fortunate ones can do it in a much shorter time.

This, taking the time, has nothing to do with moving your tongue fast or slow, because you have already your tongue away in khechari mudra. If you want to do your one mala of Gayatri in shorter period of time, then first you have to learn to relax your muscles and nerves by the methods that are taught in the yogi parampara, in the yoga tradition. You have to learn to slow your breath down and make it dirgha shuksma, long and subtle, within nairantarya, without interruption, without virama, without a pause. When you accomplish this and your mantra has become pure thought in the mind, that is only the beginning of japa.)

To deepen your Japa

• Increase the duration of Mantra thought coming like a wave

1. 1. Let the thought not turn into words on the tongue
   2. Let the thought not be interrupted by other thoughts

• Understand the Mind – Nature, Layers and Levels
• When you get deep into the layers of the mind field, the Mantreshvaras (lords of mantras) send their grace into your meditation

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji: Next question: how long can you keep that mantra thought coming like a wave, wave, wave of the same mantra thought, without other thoughts interrupting. Condition one: Without the thought turning into words on the tongue. Condition number two: Without the thought being interrupted by other thoughts. That is the way you deepen your japa, you make your japa subtle and deep.

Now please understand the next step. By understanding the same thing I have said about the nature of the mind. Mind is an energy field with many layers, like the waves of the electric current. Your thoughts are one form, your thoughts including mantra thought, are one form of the wave of the electric energy field of the mind. The word ‘electric’ here is used only as an example, as an analogy. It can be an example of magnetic field or electronic field. Mind is not electricity, mind is not magnetic field, and mind is not electronic field. Mind is a different kind of field, separate from all of these.

Now I repeat again. This mind field has many levels, many layers. Deep like a universal ocean. Let that sink into your understanding. When you begin to go deep into the layers of the mind field the Mantreshvaras, the Lords of mantras, who govern the mantra field, the mind field in the universe, send their grace, their anugraha, into your meditation. This is a secret known only to very advanced yogis. The Mantreshvara-principle will be explained in the course on Shiva-sutras in November 2010. By their grace your japa will go deep.)

Journey in Japa

• Doing the Japa at the shallow layer of Mind as a conscious thought
• As Mind’s vibrations become more ajiram (agile, free of decay) and javishtham (speediest, most high frequency), the brain waves slow down
• At each deeper layer the Mantra becomes a faster vibration; a high frequency
• As you take your Japa into yet deeper layers of the mind you will do more Japa in shorter period of time; rather you will not do
• After much abhyasa (practice), finally you reach a point where mauna (silence); where the knowledge is received wordlessly
• The wordless knowledge is received as the knowledge of the Vedas was received

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji: What does it mean for the japa to go deep? It means that you are first doing the japa at the shallow layer of the mind, as a conscious thought. As a start of the japa practice, you are doing your japa at a shallow level of the conscious mind. Let me explain next principle, about the nature of the mind, as it has been understood by the yogis. Not from books, but from their own experience of going into these layers and levels of the mind. At each level or layer of the mind, the vibration, the sphuranam, the spandanam, is higher frequency. That is it is faster. There is another principle, which I will mention here only incidentally. As the mind’s vibration becomes more and more Ajiram and Javishtham, more and more agile and higher frequency, the brain waves slow down. This will be explained to you some time when the work of our laboratory is explained to you. .)

Section 3 – Practical lesson

How to reduce the time taken for doing long mantras?

We will practice with the mantra – ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram vyaptam yena characaram, tat-padam darsitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah’

1. Bring your attention to yourself, your asana, your posture, your back, all in perfect order
2. Relax all parts of your body
3. Bring your mind’s attention to your breathing, observe your breath and establish diaphragmatic breathing
4. Feel the flow of breaths in your nostrils
5. Establish khechari mudra, the tongue lock with your mantra
6. Continue to feel the slow, smooth, gentle breaths, without a break, sound, jerk in your nostrils
7. Let there be no break in the flow of your mantra thought, with your breaths
8. Merge your left and right nostril-breaths into the sushumna stream
9. Let the mantra continue, feeling the stream of energy on the sushumna path from the nasagra
10. Following the sushumna path, go into your mind. Ignore the breath flow
11. Let only the mantra thought arise. Same wave. Not word by word, but the complete mantra thought all at once
12. The same way that the entire mantra is coming as a single wave, remember just ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram’.
13. Let that become the wave, the entire pada, the entire quarter/order, all at once. Remember, remember, and remember
14. Remember ‘vyaptam yena characaram’, the entire pada, the entire quarter as a single thought
15. Remember ‘tat-padam darhsitam yena’. No words, only the thought
16. Remember ‘tasmai sri-gurave namah’. No words, only the thought
17. Remember the entire half of the verse ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram vyaptam yena characaram’ . Think that as a thought over and over, without a break, the same wave
18. Remember ‘tat-padam darsitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah’
19. Let the entire ‘Akhanda-mandalakaram’, complete mantra, be remembered as a thought in the mind. The entire thought, like a wave
20. Having completed the desired number of japa, come back to your personal diksha-mantra. Same wave, as a thought flashing, thought flashing
21. Come to the sushumna breath, with the same mantra thought.
22. Keeping the mantra in the mind, by usual procedure, open your eyes

(Seeker’s Advantage – Verbatim as stated by Swamiji: So we come to the most important point of learning the japa practice. You have to take your japa into deeper and yet deeper layers of the mind. At each deeper layer the mantra becomes a faster vibration. At each deeper layer the mantra becomes a faster vibration, becomes more high frequency. For example, I will do Gayatri japa for one minute. When I will start I will click my finger (first click). (second click) That was one minute and I have done 27 Gayatris. It is not by moving the tongue faster. It is by going to a certain layer of the mind field where the vibration is higher frequency, is faster. It is not an effort. There must be prayatna shaitiliya, relaxation of effort, at all levels of the practice of yoga. I did 27 Gayatris, because I was speaking before, speaking after and did not give myself time to go deep enough. If I had been sitting in my own personal meditation, in that one minute I would have done 50 Gayatris, or 51 Gayatris. You need to learn this art and this science because then you learn thereby how to use the sharper parts of your mind. But that is a different topic. We will go to that some other time.

I would suggest that whenever people start the practice of a special mantra, or a purushcharana during the periods of silence here or at home, they listen to this explanation about mind, mantra and japa. As you will learn to take your japa into deeper and yet deeper layers of the mind, energy field, not only you will do more japa in shorter period of time….I correct myself: you will not do. More japa will happen in shorter period of time. Not only that will happen, but then, slowly, after much abhyasa, you will learn to go to yet deeper layer and yet deeper layer where finally you reach a point where mauna, silence prevails; where words do not come; where the knowledge is received wordlessly. The wordless knowledge is received as the knowledge of the Vedas was received. This is your journey in japa.)

Feeling in the shallows? Contemplate the Ocean.

– Swami Veda Bharati

Glossary

• Abhyasa – Practice
• Ajiram – Agile, free of decay
• Anandamaya kosha – The blissful sheath
• Annamaya kosha – Anatomical body, the physical sheath
• Anugraha – Grace
• Atman – Individual spirit
• Dirgha – Long
• Ekagra state – One-pointed attention
• Javishtham – Speediest, most high frequency
• Khechari mudra – Tuck the tongue
• Kshipta – Disturbed state opposite of one pointed
• Manomaya kosha – The metal or emotional sheath
• Mantreshvaras – Lords of Mantras
• Mauna – Silence
• Mudha – State of stupefaction
• Nairantarya – without interruption
• Nirodha – Fully controlled state
• Parampara – Tradition, lineage
• Prakriti – Matter
• Prana – Life Force, vital energy
• Pranamaya kosha – Vital body, the organic sheath
• Prayatna shaithilya – Relaxation of efforts
• Purusha – Spiritual self
• Shakti kshetra – Energy field
• Sukshma – Subtle
• Vijnanamaya kosha – The intellectual or discriminative sheath
• Vikshipta – Distracted from meditative state
• Virama – Pause

The situations that produce mind quakes in others leave a meditator’s mind well alone to enjoy its stillness.

Meditators do not suffer mind quakes even during earthquakes.  I recall my first earthquake in Dehradun. I must have been about 9 or 10 years old.  The whole family had gone out somewhere and I was absolutely alone.  I felt the ground and the house shaking, my mind said this is an earthquake!  Something inside me made me run out of the house,  jump down two steps from the platform on which the house was built, into the middle of the road and I stood there fascinated until the earthquake subsided then went back in.  I recall a fascination but not a fear.

I do not know if this would be the case with other 9 or 10 years old alone at home during an earthquake.

Back sometime in the 1980’s I used to hold weekend retreats in the house of Margit Jacob in Napa Valley California.  We were all in Margit’s yoga hut, everyone lying in shavasana and I sitting and guiding a long relaxation practice.  An earthquake came and there was no faltering, nor any movement from those lying in shavasana.  We just continued as though nothing was happening.  After the session was over we did then comment to each other “yes there was an earthquake”.

So it is.

Manuel Fernandez has practiced under Tibetan Lamas for nearly a decade.  He has done many silent meditation retreats.  He has also been living in our ashram for over 5 years.  PhD in cultural anthropology from University of California, Berkeley, he has helped develop our research programmes at our Meditation Research Laboratory.

Recently Manuel had to leave to go back home to his native Chile, when the recent Chilean earthquake struck.  Below are two of the comments we have received from him.

“Since I am in a 14th floor I figured I had nowhere to escape, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful view of the city shaking from my panoramic window.”

“Today I was teaching a yoga class to one single student in my apartment and we had two strong earthquakes, one of them was about 7 Richter! and then we had many aftershocks, some quite strong. Yet we continued with the class until the end. When I was doing the final relaxation I was very aware of my voice and I noticed every time there was an aftershock my voice was about to break but I managed to relax enough so my voice was not affected and I don´t think the student noticed any change in my voice.”

These events show that Meditation does indeed liberate us from our fears.  The situations that produce mind quakes in others leave a meditator’s mind well alone to enjoy its stillness.

Here is another Earthquake story which may help some people.

Joan Sullivan’s account:

It was 1980, Arcata, California. In the wee hours, an earthquake rattled and roared like a giant train tearing through the room. My husband said “grab the baby” and we ran outside. I was calm because I had gone to sleep from meditation and the mantra was still strong when the earthquake awakened us. I knew that we were all quite safe.

But then something strange happened. Over the next two weeks of aftershocks, I started thinking about the experience through manas, about how we were standing on largely liquid—not solid ground. Then, one night, in utter panic, I phoned my friend Sherry and asked her to come over.

“John is at work and Isaac is only 2 months old. I do not want to create fear in him,” I said.

“I’ll be there in 15 minutes,” she said.

No sooner did I hang up the phone rang. It was Dr. Arya. “Hello?” his whole being came pouring through the phone lines. “Joanne? Is this the Joanne Sullivan who died in an earthquake?”

“Oh, Panditji,” I sighed.

“I heard there was an earthquake there but the lines were tied up. Are you all okay?”

“Yes, but I’m scared.”

“Joanne, have you no faith in God?” he said.

“No, Panditji.”

Then he proceeded to tell me two scary stories about earthquakes. “Did you hear about the earthquake that swallowed a man and his banana stand? The ground opened and closed around him. He ate bananas and drank water from an underground stream for three days until they dug him out.”

Meanwhile, I am thinking “Why is he telling me this? I am already scared!” as he launches into another true disaster tale, this time about a man walking along the beach on a perfect day when a tsunami comes along and pulls him out to sea. We lived close to the ocean coast at the time so this was not particularly heartening to hear.

“He woke up the next day on the beach,” he said.

“Oh.”

Dr. Arya said a few more words and gave his blessings. By the time we hung up, my fears were gone. Based on the true stories of disasters he was telling me, I expected to be yet more frightened. I wasn’t. I don’t know what he did.

Soon after, something in me decided that an earthquake was an event of great power with billions of tons of earth moving below my feet. Awe, not fear, was more in order.

Mind lessons still not learned. The night of the event, buddhi, the discriminating mind beyond reason, was in charge. Over the next two weeks, I had let manas, the so-called rational mind, get the upper hand. This is a perfect example of what Swami Rama writes about in Meditation and its Practice and the difficulties we can get into when, through old habits, ahankara, the I-maker, or manas (lower mind, the part that “reasons”) does not let buddhi do its job and guide you.

What I was trying to tell Joanne was that it does not necessarily mean that harm will come to you and that your karma and God’s grace may save you through unexpected means.

Swami Veda Bharati

I’ll tell you one more secret of success in life.

I’ll tell you one more secret of success in life.