Category: Swami Veda Bharati

Meditation: Flow of Divine Energy

Center of the universe is in a space called the space of your heart. The space of your consciousness – Chidakasha. Come to the center of the universe that is enclosed by the clay vessel called the body, the temple of god, called the body.

Through the space, through the walls of the stable flows the breeze of the divine energy which becomes your breath. This divine energy passes through you, as it enters you, as it leaves you. Inhaling and exhaling feeling the flow and the touch of your breaths in your nostrils and the divine name, your mantra flowing as a soft sound along with the feel of your breath in the nostrils. Without a break between your breaths, without a break in the flow of the thought of the divine name.

Continue to feel the breath in the nostrils, in the space of your consciousness and the presence of your mantra, your favorite divine name and without breaking this flow of the mind stream, gently open your eyes. May God and Gurudeva bless us all.

Our Mission is to Alleviate Pain

I congratulate you (long pause) . . .

God made ears for two purposes, one to hang the microphone on and the other one to listen to others. I congratulate you on what you have accomplished. A comment to us made by a very dear friend that the gathering this year was smaller than three years ago; smaller but more cohesive and with some definite goals. With a clearer view and a clearer vision and I’ve sensed it and felt it; that Sangha is forming. And. . .Who was it who said…? I think it was Isaiah who said, “This body is a Sangha.” It comes from the Sanskrit root form, Sanghathia; that in which many forces hit a goal together. So that Sangha is there, is formed, is forming. I could go all night on the history of this word but that’s not what we are here for.

I was counting in my mind that there are 198 countries that are members of the United Nations – 20 or 21 are present here. We can congratulate ourselves on that or we can also say that we have 176 or 177 more to go.

I have told you of my master’s conversation. “Swamiji, the Meditation Center in Minneapolis is going well.  What do I do next?” Over the phone and he says, “Well, how many people in Minneapolis and St. Paul?” And I said, “Two million.” And he says, “Have all those two million started meditating?”  “No Swamiji, they have not.”  “Call me back when all two million have started meditating.”

So congratulate yourselves when all 198 countries have learned the art and science of meditation as it is taught by the Himalayan masters. Congratulate yourself when you know that when time comes for you to leave the body, you are an enlightened being. Congratulate yourself on that accomplishment if it comes to you in this life. But, on the other hand, what you have accomplished so far under the guidance of the Gurudeva is no mean achievement.  I’m happy. The sense of fraternity, awareness of being together and you go from here with a revived sankalpa to make your own spiritual progress. Repeatedly we need to keep on impressing upon ourselves that your individual spiritual progress alone is the cornerstone of the mission that the Guru has given us. And what is that mission?  Reducing the pain on earth through the power of meditation.

Free Yourself from Personal Suffering

What you earn with your job, with your hard work, with your employment, with your investment is the means to keep your body together. The body is the means for you to be able to undertake the tapasya, the self purification, which is required for making you such that you have the compassion and the power to alleviate the pain in the world.

But if you keep on dwelling on your suffering then you are not in a position to reduce the suffering of others. Your own suffering, your own suffering; what is it? Paying off your past karma so you may be free of it, and being free you may then dedicate yourself to elevating yourself spiritually and serving others. The day you would have understood this principle, your own suffering will go down because you’ll see it in that prospective.  But if you keep on complaining to God or whatever forces, “I’m suffering…I’m suffering…I’m suffering…How can I do anything for others?” Without understanding what suffering is, you will make no progress. So understand the meaning of your personal suffering. It is a necessary step towards your purification. Accept it as such and go on, move on.

One thing about the material support of this Sangha. All this time many, many people helped Swami Veda to create what has been created. Financially, Swami Veda is lacking.  We must not now just sit back and say, “Well, now the president has come and he said he will take care of it all.” That is the way of the lazy.

Teach!

If you contribute anything for this Sangha’s work, it can be your teaching.  Five minutes of teaching breathing to your neighbor who was shouting at his wife last night. You have made a contribution. You have paid five minutes worth of that to your Guru. And you have to learn to pay back that debt. Don’t sit back and say, “Well, I’m no teacher.  I have no teacher training, and I don’t have time to teach, so how can I start teaching?” In which ‘mother training school’ do mothers go before giving birth to learn how to take care of the child?! Your compassion is your training, your commitment to paying off your debt to the Guru is your training. So, number one, find ways to pay your debt to the Guru lineage by teaching five minutes of breathing to the two persons you have seen fighting.

Sometimes, when I was mobile and living in Minneapolis, my household life, I would go to the shopping mall. I would see two old women sitting on the bench arguing like they were embodiments of hostility to each other. I’m a disciple, they are both suffering. Please remember that they are both suffering and they are letting out that suffering. So I very nonchalantly turned the direction of my walk and I passed by their bench and I caught the eyes of one of them and smiled and I innocently passed. . . and she smiled back. The other lady smiled back. . .the spell of hostility is broken. That is teacher training for you. Either you register for teacher training or you do not register for teacher training. This is teacher training.

What is the Price of One Minute of Peace?

So, think in your mind, “How am I going to pay the debt to the Guru Lineage, which this morning granted me even one minute of silence? Out of the 30 minutes that I sat, I really had one minute of real peace. The other 29 minutes I was fighting with myself, I was cursing Swami, I was…” A lot of people do that, I tell you, I know, I know it…they sit down in meditation and they start arguing with me. I used to argue with my master so I know it. I know it from my personal experience. Out of 30 minutes you spend 29 minutes arguing with your wife, with your husband, with your children, with your daughter-in-law, with your mother-in-law, with your neighbor, with your Guru, with your teacher.  But you go one minute.  What is the price of that one minute? What is the value of that one minute? Where can you walk, into which shopping mall, and go into which shop and say, “May I buy from you one minute of peace please? What is your price?” The only way you can pay the price for that one minute is you give somebody else the capacity to enjoy that one minute in their life. That is what you have to do in the next three years.

How Can I Pass the Message?

I’m hospitalized, I was hospitalized in Germany, and I’m sitting waiting for the doctor along with 20 others in the waiting room, and people come over and ask, “What is it in you? I’m finding peace.” I sit there and I teach. I went to Taiwan for the first time. I knew nobody. I just wanted to visit the country. I knew that some day I’ll have to do some mission here, I want to know. They don’t speak English. I walk into the Buddhist Temple. People are sitting with these long big, big, big malas. Somebody sitting this way, somebody sitting this way, somebody sitting this way, and they are going on reciting, moving the mala. I was wearing my whites in those days and I went and I sat down and I did my mala. I didn’t go to teach them how to sit, I did my mala. Half an hour later I open my eyes and half of the people were sitting correctly. I’ve never paid a teacher training fee. I’m not saying it to say I’m a great teacher; but I teach from my experience, from my own experiments.

This is what you have to do in the next three years, and don’t keep it to yourself.  Think about, “How can I pass this message? Can I get a CD of this, what you have said, and then give it to ten people? Can I pass this on to other Yoga teachers? What can I do? Because I cannot pay the price for this, so how do I pay the debt?”

Sometimes people come to me and say, “I have great problems with my half grown children. They are rebelling and they are fighting. Swamiji, do you have any advice?” What I can do with them? What do you think my advice is? First they are shocked, I say: “Improve your relationship with your parents and your problem will go.” That is the price. That is how you pay the debt. And if your parents are not in the body you still can improve your relationship with them.

The Pleasure of Giving

Alright, so these are the changes, steps in your progress. You have to go with the sankalpa, “Ihave to make further progress.” The progress is in your intangibles. Then that progress will spread in the Ahymsin family, in the form of intangible. Then the tangibles will come.

“I will stop going to Ahymsin meetings, they are always asking for money.” Alright, let me clear one thing. Why do you give? Not because you are paying a fee to a Swami, not because you are paying a membership fee. One beautiful study I saw in the popular newspapers, the headline was, “Money can give you happiness.” It sounded like a joke. They did brain wave scans and found that, when you are giving, the pleasure centers of your brain light up. When you are giving somebody something, the pleasure centers of your brain light up. That’s why you give, not because you have to pay a membership fee. And that should be your reason for giving.

I’m going to write down some suggestions for principles to apply in your daily life.  Don’t cook just for yourself. In the Rig Veda we read, Kevalagho bhavati kevaladi, he who eats alone eats only sin. In the Bhagavad Gita the same thing, Bhunjate te tvagham papam ye pachantyatma-karanat. Those who cook only for themselves are eating the cooked food, they are only eating sin. If you don’t want to share your food, every day take just a little flour, a little dal, a spoonful of sugar, a spoonful of oil. Put it in a separate pot, put it away. When you have enough, go find somebody who is hungry and give it to them. When you are getting your salary, take out 1%. Put it aside. That is not for yourself and that is not for getting tax reduction either. It is for the pleasure of giving. These are the conditions of progress. It is not just sitting there reciting, “Swamiji, next year what mantra you are going to give us?” This ís the mantra. These are the mantras for the next three years.

2011 Gathering of Children and Youth, Silence, 2013

December 2011 we are expecting a gathering here of children and youth. Please work towards it. Think of introducing them to a sacred place. Your grandchildren, even your grown children who have not being initiated into the tradition.  Bring them and let them feel a change of atmosphere. I’ve never seen a child come to this Ashram who wants to leave. They keep asking, “Mother when are we going back there?” Because they sense what the adults don’t always sense.

So first these two three items I have suggested and then work for the children because that is easy work; and silence. Those who have already done some silence practice,  now take the next step in that silence. Advise it to others, come for that. Back home, even 36 hours of silence every week or every month. You find the time. One step more in your practice of silence.

Three years from now, 2013 when we meet we’ll put aside three days for the administration and the organization of the Sangha and the discussion; rest of the time all 200 people will keep silence. How would that be – 200 people in silence for nine days? But prepare yourself now, start doing the practice now. Ok? Alright.

And the people who are helping, guiding, whether holding an elected position or not holding an elected position; as I said, in this organization, in this Sangha, there are no presidents, no vice presidents, no secretaries, no executive members.  You serve as initiates, you serve as disciples. If I find that in this Sangha there are people who have greater knowledge, greater experience, talent, ability to serve, and their services are not being used, then I call them and I say, “Would you help me with this project? Would you help me do this? Would you help me do that? Ok?”

No Contradictions in the Universe

In the gathering, in any organization there are always differences of opinion. Quite often we take those differences of opinion personally, we create an emotion out of it. We stop evaluating it. A lot of times I have found that when there are two options there is a way that both options can be applied. People don’t learn that art. It is not choosing black against white and white against black, but choosing both black and white. On this Earth is there light or is there darkness? What kind of a question is that?! Is darkness in India? Is light in America? Twelve hours later it will be dark in America and it will be light in India. Somebody asks the question, “How should I answer these multiple choice questions?” The answer is both. There is no contradiction between the two, because the contradictions complete each other.

There are no contradictions in the Universe, there are no opposites in the Universe. There are only forces that complete each other. So think of differences of opinion on that basis. That how can this opinion and this opinion that on the surface looks like opposites of each other, how can the two both be incorporated as in the answer to the question whether there is light on this earth or is there darkness on this earth. This applies to the people who are running the Sadhaka Grama, this applies to those who will guide, those who wish to be guided, those who wish to express an opinion, those who have a contribution to make. All of you, ok? And do it.

Svanta Sukaya, Because it Gives Me Satisfaction

There is a phrase in Sanskrit, svanta sukaya, because it gives me satisfaction.  Not because it helps the organization, but because it gives me satisfaction. Do it for your internal satisfaction.

I’ve nothing more to say, enough has been said, I’ll write some of these things down and just give them to you. Help out please, there is so much to do. There are 176 countries more to go. And probably still two million people left in Minneapolis, that’s right.

Question from the audience

”Swamiji are you putting United Nations out of business?”

No, no, I’m only complementing their work. They preamble to the UNESCO (United Nation’s Education Social and Cultural Organization) says, “Wars begin in the mind of the people. It is in the minds of the people that the problem of the war is to be solved.”

So I’m only helping them out.

God bless you all. Thank you.

Now, Kahola the son of Kaushitaki asked him:

There’s no point in philosophy; there’s no point in information. The point that is important is practice. There are very simple things about practice, very, very simple things.  All you have to do is think of regularity, frequency, length, depth, and surrender. Nothing else.

Regularity in Meditation

Frequency of Meditation

Length and Depth of Meditation

Surrender in Meditation

The Wealth and Morality of a Sadhaka

Daily Schedule

1.  Waking Up

2. Prayers

3. Personal Hygiene

4. Meditation

5. Going about the day

a. Morning

b. Midday

c. Evening

Remember That These Things Are Available

Be Aware

Religion for Preventing Terrorism

A Resolution to be Adopted by The World Council of Religious Leaders

As a Recommendation To The Secretary General of The United Nations (May 21, 2003)

Yoga is not merely a matter of learning a system or a technique; it is something in which your whole personality is reconstituted.

A meditation that is an escape from life’s problems is not meditation.  A meditation that solves life’s problems by itself, a meditation that is not self-centered, is the true meditation — self-aware yet not self-centered. The non-self-centered meditation has certain features to it.  It is dedicated entirely to the will of God, and to the grace of the guru lineage.

To learn how to calm down, how to be still, how not to keep wavering, how to sit long in meditation. One cannot sit in meditation long.  Why not?  Because one cannot settle on anything in life for long. The spine is not straight because the pranic energy is not flowing straight.

There are two paths: from inside outwards, and from outside inwards.  The two are one and the same.  Being aware of your spiritual being.  And that spiritual being, that Atman, that Self, is ever steady.

Spine straight, shoulders relaxed, face calm.  Even the movement of the hand made with awareness  Not like the leaves of a tree in a storm.  To learn to move and to sit with that awareness.  There is disturbance, because, you have not permitted the effects of that meditation to permeate your body, to make your prana stream flow steady.

In the beginning, whenever one is trying to change a habit, it becomes an effort!

Whatever you do repeatedly becomes your habit.  And a sattvic habit will evoke from inside you your sattvic divine nature

Be aware that you are looking.  Be aware that you are reading/breathing. Be aware that you are moving.  Be aware that you are breathing.  Be aware that you are feeling, sensing, observing.  Be aware that you are sitting, or reclining, or lying down, or kneeling, or standing.  That is spiritual practice.

As a candle flame, dipak flame, in a windless, breezeless spot burns steadily, that is how the yogi’s body remains steady.When the mind is performing certain acts, interior mental acts, with the higher mind as a witness, observing the lower mind — at all times, even in sleep, the higher mind is observing that the lower mind is resting in sleep — then you are on the path.

Two or three minute meditations, every two and a half hours, or every three hours.  Before falling asleep, before starting your hatha practice, before breakfast, before leaving your room, before going for a walk, upon returning from a walk, repeatedly, 2-minute, 3-minute meditations, undertaken many times in the day, help you to break down the process of imprinting from the outside. The imprints from the outside become weaker, and the samskara and the nirodha samskara, the imprint of internal control becomes more deeply etched.

Meditation, starting with breath awareness in nostrils.  Resolve in your mind that again and again throughout the day, that you will bring the mind to this calm state.

Yoga-sutras of Patanjali and Hatha-yoga-pradipika by Svatmarama

In our tradition, we place the greatest importance on two texts, one is the Yoga-sutras of Patanjali and, in the field of hatha yoga, Hatha-yoga-pradipika by Svatmarama.

The meaning of a word cannot be expressed in any language.  The word is part of the language, but the meaning is not language.  The meaning is that experience to which the word refers.

The Hatha-yoga-pradipika begins with the very clear emphatically repeated statements that hatha yoga is meaningful only in the context of raja yoga.  Hatha yoga, by itself, has no existence.

The emphasis here is the experience that is imparted.  The Yoga-sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Hatha-yoga-pradipika, the Vedas, all these texts are nothing but narratives of the yogis’ personal experience. Until one begins to be inwardly oriented, the meanings of those passages cannot be understood.

Out of the two, antar-mukha habit, habit of inward oriented consciousness, and the habit of stillness, other qualities of character develop automatically.  The yamas and niyamas simply happen effortlessly.  The inclination towards them simply arises.

Development of  abhyasa  i.e. practice of   Tatra sthitau yatno bhyasah. (“Between these two, practice and dispassion, the endeavour towards stillness and stability of the mind-field is called practice.” Yoga-sutra I.13 )  What is abhyasa?  What is practice?  Effort at stillness.

Abhyasa, “practice,” has two meanings.  That whatever state you arrive at, attempt to remain there.  That is the exercise for becoming antar-mukha, inward-flowing, the mark of the inward-flowing consciousness. The other meaning of the same sutra, the definition of abhyasa, the definition of practice, is attempting stillness, stithi.

Stillness while you are speaking, stillness while you are looking, stillness even when  you are moving your arms. Going into an asana, at the same time experiencing stillness.  Being in the asana and experiencing stillness.  Coming out of the asana experiencing stillness.  That is abhyasa; that is practice.

Pra-yatna-shaithilyananta-sam-a-pattibhyam.  ([The posture is perfected, made steady and comfortable] through relaxing the effort and coalescence [of awareness] with the endless, or with endlessness.)  The attempt to remain there, effort to remain there, effort to remain still — what kind of effort?  Pra-yatna-shaithilya in which there is a relaxation.   A relaxed effort, not a tense effort, not an anxious effort.People are missing out on these subtleties of yoga.

That relaxation slowly develops when we practice awareness at all times, and certain times, special exercises for relaxation alone.

“Cancalam hi manah krshna pramathi balavad drdham tasyaham nigraham manye vayor iva suduskaram,” says Arjuna (“The mind is indeed fickle, turbulent, very powerful, and strong.  I believe its control to be as difficult as that of the wind.”  Bhagavad Gita 6.34)  Oh, Krishna, the mind is so cancala!  Ever agitated.  Ever unstable.  Ever fidgety, running here, running there.

Sa tu dirgha-kala-nairantarya-satkarasevito drdha-bhumih.  “That practice, however, becomes firm of ground only when pursued and maintained in assiduous and complete observance for a long time, without interruption and with a positive and devout attitude.” (Yoga-sutras I.14.)    Undertaken for a long time, without interval, with firmness of faith, it becomes firm of ground.

We speak of three stages of consciousness: jagrat, svapna and sushupti.  Wakefulness, Dream and Sleep.  We do not mix dream state with sleep state.  Those two are distinct states.  So, when you have mastered the wakefulness and the dream, and finally have mastered the sleep state, then you are fit for the knowledge of fourth state!

“Yoga is control of the vrttis.”   What vrttis?   Pramana-viparyaya-vikapa-nidra-smrtayah. (Yoga-sutra 1.6) [pramana (valid proof), viparyaya (perversive cognition), vikalpa (imaginary cognition), nidra (sleep), smrti (memory)]  The fourth vrtti is nidra: sleep.  Without that, there is not even the beginning of dhyana, not  even the beginning of meditation

The secret of mastering sleep?  Purification of emotions!  It is your emotions that exhaust your mind.  It is your emotions that exhaust your mind, that tire you. The secret of going directly into the deepest state is that the debris that floats about in the mind should not block you as you are entering the state.

The question of eclectic teaching: Mixing the various techniques and in between using imagination to bridge the gap.  That is where the problem is.   The techniques are all valid, if they have been taught within an ancient tradition. All of those are part of a vast gigantic galactic system, just as in your body, there are more cells than there are stars in a galaxy.  But, they are arranged in a certain pattern.  The strength of the Himalayan Tradition, as it is taught here, is that there is no system that is not known to this.

Master the fundamentals!  The basics: correct sitting, correct breathing.  Correct breathing, correct breathing!  Relaxation of all muscles and nerves and mind.  Emotional purification.  That is, calming down, not going to extremes of depression and exhilaration and depression and exhilaration.  Breath awareness.  Unbroken breath awareness.

At the beginning level, the definition of meditation is very well known.  The mind flowing as a stream with one object only.  And with the help of that kind of awareness, practicing the antar-mukha vrtti: inward consciousness.  Being aware of the still point within while operating successfully and efficiently in the world:  that is antar-mukha vrtti, the inward awareness.

Spiritual Progress Begins

Sometimes, one should spontaneously enter a state of silence.

The subtle body is made up of subtler forms of matter, not spirit. Being able to hear what someone is saying about you two thousand miles away or being able to see has nothing to do with spiritual progress.

Rising above wakefulness, dreaming, and sleep state, your spiritual progress begins —progress of Atman in Atman, progress of Spiritual Self in Spiritual Self.

The body of  a person who is at advancing spiritually undergoes a change.  His posture is different.  When he is standing straight, he is not stiff, but he is standing straight and is relaxed, and is not strained.  Effortless, relaxed stillness of the body.  A balanced body.

One thing happens, eventually: you know what position of your body will make you more effective, and that is called the control of mudra.  These are changes that happen at a physical level, before you go on to uncontrolled subtle body experiences.

In the later stages of Kundalini Yoga, there is a practice known as Danta Mudra, “the mudra of the teeth,” where your teeth are not clenched [held closed] like you would normally, but they are placed edge on edge.  That is a secret part of the kechari.  Because, when the energy moves, you have trained your whole body to not move, but you have not yet trained your jaw not to move.  The jaw and the tongue move, and waste your kundalini energy.  So, part of the reason for kechari is to still the tongue; and the reason for the Danta Mudra is to still the movement of the jaw.

The steadiness of your eyes shows whether you are gaining intensity of stillness, not your ability to gaze at a flame for a half an hour. Your voice undergoes a change; your face undergoes a change.  People who have seen you before you have embarked on the path and after you have made some of these subtle accomplishments, [will notice that] there develops on your face a saumya quality, a quality that inspires confidence in others, that makes them feel peaceful, reassures them.  Not the quality of fire, but the quality of flowing water, of a smooth flowing stream.  The quality of the coolness of the moon.  These are the signs of spiritual progress.

The more you withdraw your mind from your senses, the more your senses become acute — not become dumb, because they become infused by that energy which, because of your stillness, you are no longer wasting in random movements, random indulgences, random experimentations.That is what is meant by mastering the state of wakefulness.

The same applies to the application of conscious mind.

We experience, ordinarily, only two states of mind: kshiptum and mudham.  Both of them are simultaneous.  Kshiptum: totally distracted.  This thought now, that sensation then, These random movements of the mind do not let the mind be alert.  So while a small part of the mind remains thus distracted and agitated, the remaining vast area of the mind remains in a state of mudham, “stupor.”  Unaware, not awake, comatose — we’re all in a coma!

The conquest of sleep state is measured in two or three different ways.  Can you go into sleep when you wish?  Can you come out of sleep when you wish?  Are you aware, is your higher mind aware and a witness to the fact that you are sleeping?  That’s a very high state!  The yogis sleep that way.

The first practice for mastering sleep?  Let me give you a universal principle about the practice of yoga. When you have done a leftward movement, and you want to start a rightward movement, what do you do in between?  You first come to the center!  You don’t change the direction without first coming to the center.  You change nothing without first coming to the center!  So, from wakeful state to sleep state you come to the center.  You enter the state of meditation.  From there you go into the sleep state.  And, upon waking up, you do not go from the sleep state to the wakeful state.  Because you have been observing the fact that that part of your mind has been asleep, so, as soon as that part has rested sufficiently and you have observed that this part of the mind has rested sufficiently from the sleep state, you go into meditation state.  And, from there, you come to the wakeful state. Then, with those habits comes the practice of Yoga Nidra.   What you think is Yoga Nidra is a beginning preparation.

Yoga is a path of great subtlety, great purity.  It’s a path of turning the mind into a beam sharper than the finest, the most powerful laser beam.  Along with these achievements, or changes, you then have total mastery of the functions of your mind, and the functions of your emotions.

Emotions have a function. We all maintain a baseline emotion, whichever one.  It could be anger, it could be sorrow, it could be fear.  A person who is making spiritual progress has total control over the functions of the mind and functions of the emotions.  He wants to feel love, he feels love.  He wants to feel neutrality, he feels neutrality chooses to be neutral, and thereby becomes neutral.

Emotions are the most easily controlled phenomena of human personality.  Thoughts are more difficult. One who has total control over the functions of the mind: this moment he may be dealing with the most profound, philosophical text and someone walks in who’s in need of reassurance; he listens to his story, give the reassurance; the person walks out and leaves no residue behind in his mind. A mark of spiritual progress!

A person of a spiritual path who is making progress knows his goal at all times.  Even when he digresses, he knows his goal and knows that “I am right now momentarily digressing, and I shall digress only so much but not more.”

One thing more: the person who is making spiritual progress never utters a word uselessly.  Never utters a sentence without weighing it and balancing it for its maximum benefit to others — only for its maximum benefit to others.

“If you need to be self-centered, first find out what that ‘self’ is.” Only then you can be truly Self-centered.  When you are truly Self-centered, you are Universal-centered.  [That] means constantly [that] even the benefit of your meditation is not for yourself.

This is Yoga-sutras!

Restlessness changes as one begins to make spiritual progress.

In meditation there is only one experience worth checking, and that is non-experience.  The only valid experience, is silence of the mind, the subsiding of the waves of the mind.  If your witness mind, or buddhi observes that your lower active mind is now flowing as a smooth deep and steady running stream, without bubbling over, then you are making progress in meditation.

Secondly, when you sit down in meditation, how long does it take you to achieve that state?  As you make progress in meditation, it takes you less and less time to enter that state of non-experience.  As you make spiritual progress, after the meditation session, how long does this unconfused state of the mind last, and permeate your daily activity?  How long does the stillness of your senses last?  How long does the steadiness of your body remain?  By these, you know whether you are making progress in meditation.

Steadiness and stillness with relaxed neuromuscular system constitutes stillness.  Otherwise, it constitutes only stiffness.

The purpose of nadi shodhanam is to center, to make the left and right energies flow in the center There should be no change in the balance of your shoulders.  There should be no change in the inclining or not inclining of your neck.  The only thing you need is your arm, your elbow, and the mudra of your hand.

The seven crowns of wisdom, in Sutra II.27. Along with that, seven conditions are dropped.

jijnasah: the desire to know; jihasah: the desire to reject to abandon;prepsah: the desire to attain or accomplish; jikirshah: the desire to do; shokah: grief; bhayah: fear; vikalpah: counter-thoughts, doubtful thoughts, uncertainty.

As one makes spiritual progress, these seven signs of bondage and ignorance are dropped, so that there are not internal conflicts, internal conflicts about the nature and the choice of our spiritual path, the subtlest conflict.

A person who is spiritually advancing makes an internal commitment without fear of a conflict because in him conflicts do not arise, because his mind becomes universal, because he knows that both opposites are truths. That is quite a spiritual skill: rising above what is commonly known as the dvandvas, the forces of the opposites, things that come two-by-two.

Being able to absorb the opposites into one single whole as complementary forces, and realizing in nature, in the universe, in spirituality, and in God, that there are no opposing forces, there are only complementary forces.

As you make spiritual progress, your mental view becomes enlarged; your concept of time changes. As one makes spiritual progress, one lives simultaneously in the awareness of five thousand years, or fifty thousand years, or a cycle of creation and dissolution, lasting several or many billion years.   It is thus that the yogi becomes “knower of the three divisions of time,” and then one views the events of today as a part of that entire chain of causation.

The principle in spiritual life is to open your mouth only when it is beneficial.  You don’t open your mouth for bubbling, bubbling emotional self-expression.

Just as your sense of time changes, so your sense of space changes.  The yogi is aware of the entire world, all at the same time.  That is the holistic view of events.

A person who is making spiritual progress does not suffer from conflicts (in his mind.)  His ultimate goal is very clear.  His intermediate goals are very clear. There is no confusion.  The mind is clear. Also, his mind is clear about intellectual processes.  The mind divided constantly, that ceases.

When someone slaps you out of the blue, what is your reaction?  If you are making spiritual progress, your first reaction is a smile.  First reaction.  It’s not that you have to control your anger and then replace it with a smile, but you’ve made the shift.

Deconditioning the Mind

The world of desires promises fulfillment, but never delivers.  So, you never reach a level of satisfaction. These not-to-be-satisfied desires are nothing but a parody, a warp, a projection, reflection in the wrong direction, of interior discontent, the divine discontent.

In all the mystic traditions, the contentment towards the matters of flesh in the world is recommended, and that is where the niyama called “santosha” comes in — contentment.  But, divine discontent is encouraged.  Not to be satisfied with one’s spiritual station.

So, deep inside you, not to be contented with what you have achieved in the way of stillness, is a sign of progress.

As you grow spiritually, other changes occur.  Changes in your choice of food.  You want lighter foods, you want more sattvic foods. As one makes progress, an internal change occurs.  Then, it is not only a question of being a vegetarian.

As you make spiritual progress, your desire for the intakes, the nature of the intakes changes – your intake by way of diet, your intake by way of colors and music.  One who is making spiritual progress keeps a log of day-to-day thoughts, month-to-month progression and regression, year-to-year ascent and descent, keeps a mental graph, and every now and then sits back and traces and works out, as it were, a statistician’s averages, the way a businessman keeps his accounts.

So, as your mind progresses, your tastes change.  Your taste in music changes.  Your taste in the kind of clothing you wear changes.Your company changes.

Aversion is the strongest attachment.  Dvesha is the biggest raga.  And, if you are averse to someone else’s bad habits, someone else’s bad speech, and you hate them for it, and you criticize them for it, and you cannot stand their company, you are regressing; you are not progressing.

So, there are two phases to this. Your inclination for a certain kind of company changes.  Then, you become neutral to that which you have left behind.  Having become neutral, you go back to them, to uplift them.  You leave them behind, you become neutral to that past experience.  It no longer forms one of your samskaras.

I always tell if you are a celibate, you will go to the prostitutes quarters.  And, if you are a saint, you will seek out robbers.  And, these are the laws of spirituality.  Another thing that happens is that one seeks solitude — not privacy, solitude. Solitude is something that is filled with an interior fullness.  It is not empty; it does not become lonely; it does not lead to frustration; it does not lead to self-centeredness.  In the group, you create your solitude, you become solo.

The word kaivalya, the goal of the Yoga-sutras – ultimate solitude.  And, that ultimate solitude is not the solitude of a person from the crowds. Knowing Purusha, Atman solely that.

The body and flesh and bones, and annamaya kosha, and this physical shape made up of so many pieces of bread and milk, this identification with that is left long behind, the last confused identification of the Atman with the mind, that is dropped, and then the Atman is solo; and that is solitude; that is Kaivalya. This is the true brahmacharya, which means “walking in God.”

As one progresses towards this interior solitude, the conditions of the body no longer affect his mind.So, your attitude towards age, illness, and death, changes.

Since you have known that Atman, the spiritual Self, the conscious Self, is other than the body, which is subject to birth, growth, old age, and decay, but you, Atman, the Self, by your presence, have infused into this every decaying body, a freshness, you learn the art of constantly infusing that life force into your body, and you are not afraid of the old age.

One of the definitions of meditation, given by Gurudev Swami Rama of the Himalayas is “deconditioning the mind.”  Examples of deconditioning: no fixed habits, and yet, clear choices at a spiritual level

When you live in an interior center, you neither take this side, to go to the opposite end of the spectrum, nor that side, but you hold the entire reality in your hands, and you play with it.

In moments of accord and comfort and prosperities, the heart of the great is tender like a blossom.  In adversities, the exterior remains tender like a blossom, and inside exhibits the adamantine strength.  Then, the words of the Bhagavad-gita come true in your life.

In prosperity or adversity, in pain or in pleasure, in honor and in dishonor, you remain absolutely the same.

You maintain your center.

Your own conquest of your own emotions makes you a conqueror of others emotions.

Once you start, you begin to enjoy these conquests.  These conquests are much, much more, far more pleasant that the conquests of a Cassanova.

Swami Rama has said in one of his lectures, “Instinct is nothing but a habit.”  Instinct is but a habit accumulated over lifetimes! As you begin to conquer the power of instinct, your reptilian brain is overpowered by your mammalian brain.  Your mammalian brain is overpowered by your human rational brain.  Your human brain, then, is overpowered by your intuitive mind.  And then instinct has no power over you.

Real Conquest

One who has reached perfection is dina, the conqueror. That is the real conquest. Conquest of the lesser parts of our psychological personality make-up.  So that it becomes much more elevated, beyond your identification as a male or a female, being poor, being rich, unfortunate etc. It is not that those events are not in his memory, but they are not the source of his reactions any more.

The yogi’s karma action is non-white, non-black. When acting from the essence, not acting from psychological conditioning, what is most needed, then you are free. Along with that comes the vow of the Bodisattva. You reach a point where there is not one single selfish thought. Every thought is only for removing the pain and ignorance of others.

A person who is making spiritual progress becomes a mother to the whole universe and seeing everyone crying in pain, has no time to sleep. That is the vow of the Bodisattva.

Presence of  Shiva by Stella Cramrich is the best book for the Westerner to understand the concept of Shiva.

The Divinity within you is Shiva and that is SHIVOHAM, SHIVOHAM.

We are absolutely in love with our pains, the same with our emotional pains. Rise above

your addictions to pleasure and pain, because the two are one and the same, addictions to bodily sensations. This is not to say you are insensitive, but you are in control.

“Be even minded in pleasure and pain,” Bhagavad Gita.  Go deeper than the periphery, in the non-physical consciousness.

No one enjoys his food because one is not concentrated.

Mental habits, the way your father and mother treated you, psychological conditioning. These are all psychological handicaps. They prevent you from rising above your present spiritual station.

A person who is on the spiritual path, a sadhaka, rises slowly, by constant self observation, above all his psychological conditioning. What is the difference between the tiredness of a tourist and the tiredness of a pilgrim? Rise above your own personality. Be whatever someone needs. Be a mother if there is need for a mother or a father if there is need for a father. Be whatever is needed for a person at a certain moment.

Illness is a time of very great blessing. Use this time to go in the interior, stay in the interior during the time of illness. Use illness as an opportunity for your spiritual development.

So far as the AHYMSIN family is concerned, upon seeing you all I feel deep satisfaction – that there is a sense of deep stability here. Even though the gathering is smaller than last time, which is to be expected, the family is more stabilized – the commitment of many people. You do not know fortunate you are to associate with other members of the AHYMSIN family – how many experienced, wise devotees are here, people who can guide others. And it is for them to start guiding, and it is for them to be found. It is for you, while you are still here, to find them and make a friendships with them, create kalyana mitras, noble friends, and let that stability continue.

First, go back, if you do not have copies of what was distributed [at the time of the special practices pertaining to Ity-ukta Mantra] in 2007. That is life long. Continue with that, and then this an addition.

Now we seek depth to our wisdom: dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt – “may he inspire our wisdom.”

The first part of the expanded mantra is:

OM bhūr OM bhuvaḥ OM svaḥ OM mahaḥ OM janaḥ OM tapaḥ OM satyaṃ

These are known as vyāhṛtis – “divine utterances.” They are closely connected with the traditional yogic texts, the stories of genesis, according to the rishis, that the Divine Being uttered these sounds and thereby created the universes. Uttered in your mind, they will give you an understanding of the universes that are within you and the universes that are the expansions of the universes within you – external universes that are expansions of the universes within you.

At this time, I would advise only that you learn the full expanded Gāyatrī Mantra and do the mental japa. I have written down how much you should do.

OM bhūr OM bhuvaḥ OM svaḥ OM mahaḥ OM janaḥ OM tapaḥ OM satyaṃ

OM tatsavitur vareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt

OM āpo jyotī raso ‘mṛtaṃ brahma bhūr bhuvaḥ svar OM

There is a whole recorded course on Gāyatrī Mantra. I have not written about that here, but you can inquire about it in which each letter of the Gāyatrī is explained, each letter, not just each word. Literal translations of the mantras do not carry the meaning. Those who have read about mantras, they have studied this point for years and years. If you ask me to translate the first Seven Utterances, the translations would run into thousands of pages. I would have to explain all the chakras, all the breathing practices and so forth.

The part: OM tatsavitur vareṇyaṃ bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt

has been explained many times. And the literal translation of the last part,

āpaḥ (āpo) = “waters”

jyoti = “light”

rasa, (raso) = “essence and flavor”

amṛtam = “the nectar of immortality”

brahma = ‘Brahman”

bhūr, bhuvaḥ, svaḥ are the three maha-vyāhṛtis. These three are essences of the first seven – AUM.

– This last part, bhūḥ bhuvaḥ svaḥ āūṁ,

You can see that the mantras are written in three ways: (1) in Sanskrit, (2) then according to the international system of transliteration, and then (3) with the regular Roman script / English script. And the way that it is written at the end there: bhoor bhuvah svar Om, you recite it that way. Maybe someone can recite it for you. We will also have the CDs available.

When you do japa, the two mantras are alternated so, for example, when you are doing three repetitions, you do the akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākāraṃ, which is to seek the Guru’s blessing on what you are doing, and then you do the expanded Gāyatrī Mantra. Then come back to akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākāraṃ, and then do the Gāyatrī. Then do the akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākāraṃ and Gāyatrī. You just keep on doing that…

…There are times when I do not advise some people to do Gāyatrī Mantra, but that is in terms of a purascharana, an intensive practice. To do one mala of Gāyatrī a day is all right for anyone anywhere. Secondly, if you are going to read or reread my booklet on Special Mantras, what does it say about previous mantra that you have done? You do a few repetitions of the previous ones in each sitting, so that that link remains. And then you concentrate on the correct practice. Like with Ityukta, you do not totally forget it. Do at least three or four repetitions every day.

अखण्ड-मण्डलाकारम् व्याप्तम् येन चराचरम्।

Akhaṇḍa-maṇḍalākāram vyāptam yena carācaram

(Which) pervades the entire unbroken form of the circle (of creation), moving and unmoving.

तत्पदम् दर्शितम् येन तस्मै श्री गुरवे नमः॥

Tat padam darśitam yena, tasmai śrī gurave namah

To that beautiful and benevolent Guru through whom that state was revealed (to me), salutations.

Akhanda-mandalakaram

Undivided, indivisible, that which is not constituted of parts ever remains one, whole and complete.  By the invocation of which, by the presence of which within us all divisiveness and delusion of our minds and spiritual forces recover and discover our own interior indivisibility and rediscover that we are made of objects for a part of which we identify ourselves are not the parts of the one, undivided, indivisible, spiritual essence.

Mandala

That which adorns all forms and essences.  The warp and the web of the lines, rays, and strands of shakti emanating from a sun-like, moon-like point of energies along the lines of which the universes, forms and beings are constituted and like all the centripetal and centrifugal forces returns to the same.  Adorned and beautified with these designs yet not becoming parts, divisables. The one complete whole.

Akaram

The one whom we call akaram adhya.  The one who we invite, the one whose akararama, presence we invoke and merge with our presence, with our essence.  Whose shape and form and configuration are no other than the indivisible arrangement of all the shaktis.

Vyaptam

By whom, by the one whose location is in the bija mantra Yam in the heart center.  It is the place where the ascending and descending forces join in upward and downward triangles.  That which is the nada, the sound, an inaudible sound vibration of that union of the ascending and descending forces.  Yena by which, sound (vyaptam) is pervaded, is permeated.  Vy-aptam is filled in all its varieties.  Is made noble and sage-like through all of its vidyas, sciences, levels of knowledge.

Yena

Yena by whom it is permeated, pervaded, filled with nobility, knowledge and wisdom and all various ways (vyaptam).

Characharam

All that is moving, all that is unmoving, all that is moving that is the world of energies which alone have the true movement, which have the vibration, which do not merely give an appearance of moving but they that move all other things that are acharachara, not moveable by themselves, have not the power, the strength, the knowledge, the wisdom, the consciousness, the awareness, to move by themselves.  Whose movement is dependent only upon the moving forces, achara.  Unmoving like our body, like our bones, like blood, like our brain which are achara not moveable which cannot move without the chara forces.  The forces of divinity that wander and travel and course through all of these forms and make them move. Thus the chara and achara both parts of my being, your being, our being, universal being, our deeper essence are all vyaptam pervaded, permeated by that maha nada-that sound that dwells in the heart, where the ascending and the descending forces meet.  That one whose shape, form, configuration, is the adornment that is indivisible, the harmonious, centripetal and centrifugal lines and strands of energy and power.

Tat padam

That pedestal, that station, that state of consciousness, that level of awareness which is expressed by the word tat.  That as in tat savitur varenyum as in tat twam asi.  He who has show me the meaning of that level, that state of awareness which is the true meaning of the word tat-That.  He who has shown me the meaning of the word That.  Tat padam darshitam yena..

Darshitam

Was shown to me.

Yena

It is by Him.  By that one by that force, by that interior sound which is the concentration of the vibration of all the mantras.

Tasmai

To that one.

Shri Gurave namah

To that Shri Guru, the one.  Gu, darkness, ru, remover.  He who removes darkness by the presence of the force called Shri, which is the principle and divinity of all beauty.  By whose brilliant beauty gives refuge, ashraya, to all beings, all levels of essence.  To that remover of darkness who removes the darkness by that brilliance of beauty.  Divine Mother’s beauty.  Unto that one namaha.  Into that one I merge all my exterior beings and say of them not mine, not mine, not mine.  Not mine the body, not mine the limbs, not mine the organs, not mine the senses, not mine emotions, feelings, sentiments.  Not mine, intellect, intuition, doubt, resolution, not mine.  Intent, declaration, statements that I am, not mine.  Unto that one I surrender all my claims of ego.  Namaha.  The last ma, ha sound.  The release of energy.  May I through that surrender find in myself that release. Release of that energy which I have kept blocked and because of which I have felt blocked in my life.  In my endeavors, in my undertakings.  I was blocked because I had not surrendered my mind.  Having surrendered my mind I say namaha.  This is the nature, this is the meaning of my surrender, my homage, my prostrations.  I take all of these claims and I burn them.  All my ego and I burn it into the fire of that essence which is the indivisible, universe adorning arrangement of the beautiful energies in all their various forms.  Imbuing and suffusing all immoveable things with the semblance of movement.  By whose presence by the presence of which force, by the grace of which force the meaning of the true pedestal has come to me, has become known to me.  I surrender.  I burn my being as an offering unto that fire.

OM Shreem Gurave Namah!   OM Shreem Gurave Namah!  OM Shreem Gurave Namah!

I worship the divinity that is within you.  From February 2007 to February 2010, for three years the entire AHYMSIN family undertook the observance of reciting a special mantra:

ity-uktā sā tadā devi

gambhīrāntah-smitā jagau

durgā bhagavatī bhadrā

yayedam dhāryate jagat

The meaning and the purpose of this mantra was explained at that time – to bring stability, to bring stability to our individual hearts and minds, stability in our spiritual practices; thereby stability in our emotions; thereby stability in our body language, verbal language (voice, tone), all manner of our communication, and through that, stability in our relationships, in our families, in our communities, and through that stability, expanding its circles, stability in our spiritual family.

I have been delighted and gratified that so many participated in this observance, and I have seen, witnessed the stability it has brought to our spiritual family, the results of which are visible in the satsanga, the gathering of the aspiring souls of the sangha, of the fraternity that came together here at Swami Rama’s Sadhaka Grama from February 1 to February 12, 2010.

Now it is time for us to go further, to seek wisdom and the wisdom of enlightenment by the grace of the Guru.  Our next gathering of this kind will be from February 25 to March 11.  Part of that time, nine days, will be satsanga in total silence, the rest of the time for other contemplations and deliberations.  Imagine 300 people in silence on the sacred grounds for nine days, silently devoting their bodies, prana, hearts and minds to a merger with infinity, with the serenity of the Divine Being!  What energy it will generate, not only for the participants on location to feast upon, but what rays will go emanating from it to the entire sangha on all continents wherever our Gurudev’s disciples meet in meditation!

The mantra for this time, for this period is two mantras:  The first part is the akhanda-mandalākāram mantra, to seek the grace of the Guru, to seek the awakening of the Guru Chakra so that we all may become linked with that endless chain of the lineage which may confer upon us an open door through which we may enter the portals of wisdom.  The second part will be an expanded version of the Gayatri mantra.

Do please listen closely to these instructions so that there is no confusion.  It is a long mantra.  In this Kali Yuga (the Dark Ages) there are many impediments.

We have to learn to overcome those impediments on our spiritual path.  But sometimes we have to make adjustments and not feel pressed, so I am not going to impose the full 108 recitations of the mantra every day because it is a long mantra.  Those who are not used to this mantra, those who have not yet understood what chakras are, those whose practice has not yet been well-grounded may choose to do the simple version which I will recite, and you may do 33 repetitions or 51 or 71, and if you can truly have a conversation with your dear friend, your mind, 108, if the mind will agree, each day.

I will recite the mantra.  It is also coming to you in a written form so that you may memorize it.  For the first part, the akhanda-mandalākāram, there is another CD which can be made available to you to help you memorize that if you do not already know that mantra.  And for the expanded version of the Gayatri, you may read the written portion, listen to this recitation, get your pronunciation clear in your mind, and then begin your practice.

Editor’s note

Please see: https://www.ahymsin.org/main/index.php/2010-2013-practicetranscript.html and https://www.ahymsin.org/main/index.php/Swami-Veda-Bharati/akhanda-mandalkram-mantra.html